Chapters Chapter 1: Princess Celestia
Author's Note
Here's the first chapter! I hope you like it! 🙂
Make sure to tell me what you think and stay tuned for more!
Chapter 1: Princess Celestia
Chapter 1: Princess Celestia
5 years later in an alternate Equestria, the ponies of this universe were not having a particularly thrilling day either. Applejack was currently running for her life through the streets of Canterlot while being chased from the air by Nightmare Moon. The corrupted form of Princess Luna was trying to blast the orange farm mare from the sky, but kept missing.
Applejack híd behind an abandoned cart before reaching under her hat and pulling out a large apple. She was saving it for later, but the sudden life or death situation had overwritten her plans. She peeked out from behind the cart and saw Nightmare Moon closing in on her and preparing to blast her away along with the cart she was hiding behind. Waiting for the right moment, Applejack jumped out from behind the cart and threw the apple straight at the corrupted alicorn. Nightmare Moon tried to blast her, but the apple landed on her horn before she could fire, getting impaled on it and the magical energy caused it to explode, temporarily blinding the alicorn with it's fluids. Applejack took advantage of the situation and bucked a barrel she had found lying nearby, sending it at her foe. The object hit and caused Nightmare Moon to fall out of the air.
Meanwhile at a lower section of the city, Rarity was busy with Prince Blueblood, but since neither the fashionista nor the snobbish prince liked to get themselves dirty, this duel was progressing at a much slower rate. They've mainly been throwing minor spells at each other before quickly dodging, but it has already tired them out. They were not much for physical confrontation.
Above them, Twilight was trying to subdue Discord. It was not easy because no matter what attack she was throwing at him, he kept turning it into something whimsically chaotic, but otherwise harmless. Just now, he had turned a magical energy beam she fired at him into a line of party spray foam which ended up falling back on Twilight, tying her up and pulling her down to the ground. As she struggled to get out of it, she looked up at the draconequus floating above him.
"What's with you, Discord?! I thought you have changed! What are you doing throwing your lot in with Sombra?!" she demanded.
"Oh, don't get me wrong. I've really grown a soft spot for you ponies, but once in a while, I need some good old fashioned chaos to kick back." he replied. Twilight glared at him and used a teleport spell to get above Discord. Having finally freed herself from the solidified party foam, she quickly flew around Discord a couple times and tied him up with it. Before the draconequus could to anything, Twilight used a strong knockout spell that sent him down towards the ground. He ended up crashing right on front of Rainbow Dash and Cadence who just arrived on the scene. Twilight landed right in front of them.
"Rainbow, Cadence, how are we doing?" she asked.
"Applejack has dealt with Nightmare Moon and Blueblood won't last much longer either." Cadence replied. "I think we should finally head towards the castle and take the fight to Sombra. I had to leave Flurry Heart there and as much as I trust Starlight and Trixie to keep her safe, I don't how long they can last."
"She's right!" Rainbow Dash agreed. "Let's go before Sombra throws something else at..." she was interrupted by a huge crash right in front of them. "...us." she finished in exasperation. In front of the trio, Tirek was standing, ready to attack. Twilight didn't wait for that and flew at the behemoth to attempt a preemptive strike, only to be effortlessly swept away. Rainbow and Cadence winced upon seeing it.
"That must have hurt." said Rainbow. "Maybe a combined assault would have worked better."
"Well, that's Twilight for you." Cadence replied. "She sometimes forgets she can't do everything by herself." Tirek turned towards them.
"Sombra has given me the magic of dozens of unicorn mages. The two of you can't stop me." he warned, getting ready to charge. Rainbow Dash scoffed.
"You just watch us, meathead." she said as she and Cadence leapt to attack.
Meanwhile in the throne room of the Canterlot Castle, Starlight Glimmer and Trixie were doing their best to hold back an approaching King Sombra, but even when their spells were potent enough, they were kept being distracted by Lightning Dust zipping around over their heads, throwing them and their spells off balance. And if that wasn't bad enough, Pinkie Pie and Big Macintosh who were sent to them as backup have been captured and brainwashed by the crystal tyrant into fighting alongside him. Pinkie brought her party cannon and kept firing at the two mares with various party devices that she gave a deadly makeover and Big Mac, being massive as he was just kept going with all of their attacks bouncing off of him.
"I can just hear Twilight complaining about what took us so long to clean up this mess." Trixie whined as she fired another magic bolt. Starlight rolled her eyes.
"Twilight isn't like that. She knows that no matter how powerful we are, we are not miracle workers." she said. Trixie opened her mouth to say something in return, but then the two mares saw Sombra channeling his magic into his horn to attack. Exhausted as they were they could only retreat and take cover behind a throne where Flurry Heart have also been hiding.
"Where the heck is the Princess?" Trixie complained. "We're getting our flanks handed to us here!"
"She had to check the statue garden to make sure Sombra didn't bust anyone out of there. She'll arrive anytime now. Until then, we'll have to hold the throne room and protect Princess Flurry Heart. I'm sure the 'Great and Powerful Trixie' can handle that with my humble assistance." Starlight mocked.
"Trixie hates you." that was the only response she was given.
In the Statue Garden, Celestia and two of her guards were doing a prisoner control. Celestia was glad to see that no one was missing, but all throughout the whole procedure, she couldn't shake off a bad feeling. She felt as if she could be attacked anytime, but she dismissed it as a side effect of the battle raging on in the city.
"All of the 'statues' are accounted for, Your Highness." a grey pegasus guard reported. "No disturbances."
"Except for this one over here." said a white unicorn from a few meters away. "I don't remember this one being here and it's not on the list either." Celestia raised an eyebrow and walked over to the statue the guard was talking about. It had obscure features, but the figure was familiar. But before she could inspect it further, the statue began shimmering with a faint yellow light which became brighter and brighter until Celestia realized what was about to happen.
"GET DOWN!" she yelled at her guards as she jumped in front of them and activated a shield spell. Just in time as well, as the statue exploded with blinding yellow light, sending rubble everywhere. The two guards stared in horror.
"This statue wasn't a prisoner." Celestia scoffed. "It was a trap."
"Still as bright as ever, aren't you Celestia?" came a mocking voice as a yellow unicorn with red and yellow colored mane walked out from behind the bushes. Celestia glared. Her bad feeling had been vindicated.
"Sunset Shimmer." she growled.
"I'm pleased you remember me, princess." The yellow unicorn snarled as she sent a huge blast at the princess and her guards which sent them back several meters and knocked the two stallions out cold. Celestia stood up and went to confront her former student.
"Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower, you join up with Sombra? After everything I taught you about harmony and friendship? After everything he'd done to the crystal ponies?" Celestia was disgusted with Sunset's actions. But the unicorn just scoffed in return.
"He sees my true potential! Something you never did! Under his guidance, I'll become more powerful than any of your protégés ever became! Especially that soft hearted fool you replaced me with!" she spat, firing another bolt at the Princess. Celestia was prepared this time, so she evaded with ease. She walked up to Sunset to subdue her, but she surprised her by charging at her and attacking her physically by pressing their horns together. Before Celestia could react, Sunset spun around and bucked her in the head, making her stumble back. Taking advantage of this, Sunset blasted her again, this time successfully.
Before Celestia could get up, Sunset teleported next to her and bucked her in the side to stop her from getting up. As she struggled on the ground, Sunset blasted her again, this time against one of the statues in the garden. She then blasted the statue's lower half, causing it to fall forward, and it almost crushed the princess, but she managed to teleport away in the last second. Sunset started looking around for Celestia, but she didn't see that she had teleported above her and was now hovering above her head in the air.
Deciding that she had entertained this entitled whelp long enough, Celestia summoned light from her horn and drew a ring of fire around the unicorn who was so shocked that she couldn't even teleport away. Celestia descended down on top of Sunset and held her down until she could use a knockout spell on her, sending her into unconsciousness. She then put out the fire to walk away, but not before giving her former student one last, condescending look. "You never cease to disappoint, Sunset Shimmer."
On the streets of Canterlot, the heroes were trying to deal with the rampaging Tirek. Spitfire and a few other Wonderbolts flew circles around him and they actually managed to create a tornado around him and lift him into the air. Before Tirek could use his enhanced magic to break free, Rainbow Dash flew through the wind carrying Applejack with her and threw her at the monster. Applejack thrust her back hooves forward to deliver a healthy kick at the monster's head which made him fall back on the ground. He landed on the top of a building and stumbled backwards, and through the Wonderbolt tornado, he didn't see that he was stumbling towards the edge. Before he could catch himself, the Wonderbolts used their wings to push him off. A few moments later, he was lying in a crater at the bottom of the building right in front of Shining Armor and Fluttershy who only recently arrived on the scene of the battle.
"And once again, the fight is over before we could have made ourselves useful." Shining complained, referring to himself and the entire Royal Guard. "Sometimes I wonder if the princesses even need us when they have you girls." Fluttershy gave him an encouraging look.
"Don't sell yourself short, Shining. You and the guards did an admirable work at getting those civilian ponies out of the city before the they could get hurt. The losses would have been great without you. That's more important than winning the fight." Shining smiled at her in gratitude, but somehow it made the shy mare back away. "Oh, I'm sorry if that wasn't comforting enough. I'm not very good at giving a pep talk..." Shining just laughed, shaking his head at Fluttershy's antics. His amusement was short lived however as he heard a moan coming from Tirek who came to and was now standing in front of them, ready to attack. Shining got in front of Fluttershy protectively as he lit up his horn, but before he could do anything, a purple blur flew past him and pushed Tirek far away from him. Shining Armor sighed as he realized what happened.
"Like I said, I don't know why the princesses need us." He then turned to Fluttershy. "Come on, let's help the others wrap things up." Fluttershy nodded and they headed off.
Back inside the throne room, Starlight and Trixie were unfortunately not doing as well as the outside group: they have both been incapacitated and tied up along with Princess Flurry Heart. Sombra stood in front of them with a triumphant smile.
"That was a good warmup. But Celestia should really be here by..." before he could finish, the door of the throne room was swung open and the alicorn princess in question walked inside. Sombra smiled smugly. "Perfect timing."
"It took me almost two minutes to get past your shadow barrier. Not bad." Celestia admitted. She then lit up her horn and destroyed the bindings holding Trixie and Starlight. Pinkie tried to fire at them with her cannon, but Trixie conjured up a giant plug and shoved it into the deadly party instrument. Instead of firing, the cannon flew backwards, taking Pinkie along with it. The two mares then launched themselves at Big Mac together. Sombra, unhappy with the turn of events, decided to deal with the. other two before the princess. He turned to Lightning Dust. "Take care of this." he said, pointing his hoof at Celestia. Lightning glared at him.
"That wasn't the deal, Sombra! You promised me Rainbow Dash!" she's been wanting Dash's head ever since the events at the Wonderbolt Academy.
"And you promised me quality assistance against Celestia's forces! If you want me to deliver, do your part!" he barked before marching off towards the brawl in the background. Lightning wasn't happy but there wasn't much she could do. She faced the princess, who was rather unimpressed with her opponent.
"I suggest you rethink your allegiances, Lightning Dust. A Wonderbolt reject against an alicorn princess is hardly a fair fight." Lightning scowled.
"Good. Because I don't do fair!" she snarled as she flew at the princess. Celestia tried to subdue her quickly, but Lightning Dust's reputation wasn't undeserved, she was perhaps even faster than Rainbow Dash. Before Celestia could unleash a spell, Dust interrupted her with a quick punch. After a few moments of unsuccessfully trying to blast her away. Celestia changed tactics. The next time she saw Lightning fly at her, she summoned a force field around herself. Lightning dust flew straight into it at high speed, which wasn't pleasant. She ended up sliding down on the side of the force field onto the floor. Celestia lowered the field and aimed her horn at the rogue pegasus.
"Last chance, Lightning Dust. Join me against Sombra and I will grant you pardon." But Lighting wasn't finished. She sprinted under Celestia and delivered a kick into her stomach with both of her back hooves. Celestia winced in pain, but before she could recover, Lighting flew over her and aimed her back hooves down towards her.
"I will break your back!" she exclaimed, descending down towards the alicorn, but Celestia managed to recover in time to summon another force field and Lightning Dust bounced off of it and landed back on the floor. This time, Celestia didn't wait for her to recover.
"You should have taken my offer." Celestia said calmly as she used the same knockout spell as she used on Sunset to incapacitate her.
"Good help is so hard to find these days." Sombra said from behind her. Celestia turned around to see the crystal tyrant standing in front of her with an unconscious Big Mac, Starlight and Trixie behind her. Flurry Heart was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Flurry?" Celestia asked angrily. Sombra rolled his eyes.
"Oh, please. I have better things to do than chase a scared filly around this castle." the princess glared at her, causing Sombra to smirk with a raised brow. "What is this, Celestia? Are you mad? Are you actually going to attack me or waste more of your time and breath to offer me forgiveness and reformation?"
"I may be a forgiving spirit, Sombra, but you're stretching my patience dangerously thin." she lit up her horn and blasted a spell towards Sombra, but he countered with a shadow spell of his own. He then turned into his shadow cloud form and started slowly advancing towards the princess. Celestia collected all of her power and blasted a huge wave of sunlight at the black and grey mass, but she could only blast away a small part of it. Celestia tried blasting again and again, but she could only punch holes on the cloud and was forced to keep backing away from it. Deciding she's had enough, Celestia flew up and summoned every bit of strength she had left. Her entire body began vibrating with majestic yellow light and once she saw the shadow cloud coming to a halt and it's eyes closing to protect themselves from the blinding light. Celestia then flew straight at the cloud and when she flew through it, it exploded. Celestia landed on the floor and an utterly agonizing, exhausted and beatan Sombra landed behind her.
Before Sombra could recover, Celestia took the rope she freed Starlight and Trixie from and tied him up with it. Once the crystal tyrant had been dealt with, she went to help the others. She woke up the two unconscious unicorns as well as the two brainwashed earth ponies with the additional bonus of breaking Sombra's mind control over them. And to her indescribable relief, Flurry Heart had also came out from her hiding place. She then took out a small crystal and used her magic on it to summon Twilight Sparkle's image in front of her.
"Twilight, the throne room is secure. How are things at your end?" Twilight gave her a reassuring smile.
"All done. Luna is freed from the corruption and we've rounded up Tirek, Blueblood and Discord. We're currently escorting them to the statue garden." Celestia nodded.
"Good. My guards will be waiting for you with Sunset Shimmer and I will be along shortly with Sombra and Lightning Dust. Some timeout in my statue garden will allow them to ruminate on their actions today."
"Let's just hope this timeout will prove more productive than the last." Twilight added. "I'll see you there." the image faded and Celestia was about to go check on her injured little ponies when she was interrupted by a dark chuckle from Sombra. She turned towards him with a raised brow.
"Pray tell what is so amusing about your current situation, Sombra?" she asked. Sombra looked up at her and smiled evilly.
"Oh, I'm just thinking about tomorrow's headlines in the equestrian newspapers: 'Canterlot falls', 'Changelings kill thousands'." Celestia looked dumbfounded.
"Changelings? What do changelings have to..." then it clicked in her head. "This... This attack was just a distraction, wasn't it?" she asked with her eyes widened in horror.
"Took you long enough to figure it out." Sombra smirked. "As we speak, that idiotic Chrysalis' changelings are finishing setting up the explosive crystals I provided them at major points of the city. Chrysalis is all but ready to detonate them." Celestia was about to demand more information, but before she could, Lightning Dust came to and freed Sombra from the ropes. Celestia went to intervene, but Sombra blasted her back. "Don't worry, Celestia. Me and my crystal slaves will be more than happy to rebuild Canterlot once I've reclaimed my empire. With a few tweaks to resemble my glorious self more of course." He then lit up his horn and before anyone could do anything, he telported away along with Lightning Dust.
"They couldn't have gotten far!" Starlight exclaimed. "Sombra is still recovering! I can track them!"
"No!" Celestia said. "If Chrysalis is really about to blow up the city, we have to focus all of out attention on her! I'll start tracking her, you go and warn the others!"
Sure enough, on a square in the middle of Canterlot, right in front of a statue of Celestia herself, Chrysalis was done setting up the explosives. "Sombra wasn't kidding. These things are unstable." She said as she slowly and carefully placed the last crystal on top of the others with her magic. "Excellent! All set!" she announced with glee. "Now then, all we have to do is..." she was interrupted when a ball of yellow light appeared a few meters next to her and as it supsided, Princess Celestia herself walked out of it. Chrysalis smiled. "Right on time." she then turned to the two changeling drones standing next to her. "Leave us. I'll handle this." the drones nodded and flew off, then Chrysalis turned back to the princess with a jovial smile.
"I knew it was too much to hope that that failure of a student of yours can handle you." she said. "But at least now we can have one final dance together."
"This dance will be a solo one Chrysalis. I'm here to stop you." Celestia said, marching towards the changeling queen. But before she reached her, Chrysalis' horn lit up and the crystals at the bottom of the statue began shaking.
"Not so fast. You wouldn't want me to bring this entire city down because you can't stay put, do you?" Celestia cast a concerned look towards the crystals before she looked back into the eyes of the changeling queen standing directly in front of her face.
In the distance, Twilight Sparkle and the others have been closing in on the location of the two leaders and the crystal bomb.
"There they are!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"We won't make it in time on hoof!" yelled Applejack, turning towards the winged ponies in the group. "Use your wings!" Rainbow Dash nodded at her and took off with Twilight, Fluttershy, Cadence and Spitfire alongside her.
'Keep her talking, princess.'
"Why are you doing this, Chrysalis? If you destroy Canterlot there will be no love left for your changelings!"
"There's plenty of love left in Equestria. And with you and all of your pets removed from the picture by a single boom, there will be no one left to stop them from turning your country into an all-you-can-eat buffet." Chrysalis gloated. "In fact, I like this plan so much that I think I'll just do it before you or your ponies can mess it up for me."
The next few moments seemed like they passed in slow motion for everypony involved. The light on Chrysalis' horn grew sharper and the crystals that made the bomb began shaking more and more. The winged ponies slowly closed in on the changeling queen as Celestia lunged forward in a desperate attempt to stop her. And then, the air began to sparkle around them. Celestia and Chrysalis were too busy with each other to notice, but Rainbow Dash, Cadence, Applejack and Shining Armor all saw it. Blue light began to surround them as their surroundings became more and more blurred and before they knew it, they disappeared from next to their comrades. Along with the alicorn and the changeling.
Celestia saw herself laying on top of Chrysalis in the middle of the same square they were just seconds ago, but it looked... different somehow. At least the city was still standing. That was good. But Celestia was certain that some kind of change had taken place. The buildings, the streets, the statues, they were all darker and more grim looking somehow. And on the flagpole in the middle of the square, there was a flag that definitely wasn't the one Equestria used. It was a blue flag with a purple star in the middle that seemed to have an eye in the middle of it. It was rather ominous.
As Celestia examined her surroundings, Chrysalis also picked herself up and since she was alive, she knew the bomb had failed. Strangely, she was not very happy about it.
"This was the last time I did business with the Crystal Empire." she growled in frustration before turning to Celestia. "Just what did you do to us, sunbutt?" Celestia simply couldn't bring herself to respond. This entire place just felt... wrong. She had a terrible feeling. Even worse than the one she felt just a few moments ago when Chrysalis was about to blow up Canterlot. Said changeling queen was about attack the alicorn to force some answers out of her, but she was interrupted when a large group of pegasi flew over their heads. They started circling above them and soon they were followed an equally large group of unicorns. They wore armor reminiscent of the Royal Guard of Canterlot, but it still looked different. It was dark blue and had the same star with an eye symbol on their chest.
The guards surrounded the two mares. The unicorns lit up their horns and the pegasi aimed spears and crossbows at them from above. "Celestia!" cried one of them. "Get on the ground and put your hooves over your head! If your horn as much as twinkles, we'll open fire!" Both Chrysalis and Celestia were extremely confused by this. Though the former's surprise was much more pleasant.
"Well, how about that?" she asked both herself and Celestia in amusement. Celestia didn't waste any time. Instead of going along with their demands, she summoned all of her remaining strenthg and lit up her horn so brightly that the guards that surrounded them all had to drop their weapons and cover their eyes. Taking advantage of this, Celestia had enough time to cast a teleport spell and disappear. Chrysalis did the same, except she transformed into one of the guards from the crowd to slip away unnoticed. Celestia had one last thought on her mind as she left.
'Sweet sister, what nightmare did you cast upon me?'
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 3: Princess Cadence
Back in the main Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle was walking down the hallway towards the throne room of Canterlot Castle. She wasn't in the highest of spirits. Just when she thought this day was finally over and everything was gonna go back to normal, life has once again had to cross her plans. Instead of apprehending Chrysalis and calling it a day, she now had to deal with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Shining Armor, Cadence and Celestia herself disappearing right in front of their eyes and they had no idea where to. If the public would find out that their leader had disappeared right after an attack on Canterlot, there would be a massive panic in the entire country, so she and her friends had to do their best to cover it up until Celestia and the others could be found, which was easier said then done. And if that wasn't bad enough, Sombra and Lightning Dust were still at large, Luna still hasn't recovered from her latest corruption to Nightmare Moon and the other villains they've captured today required constant watch in the dungeons until Celestia could come back to deal with them. She was officially at the end of her nerves when she entered the throne room and the fact that she had to put up with Starlight and Trixie constantly bickering about how to find the missing ponies definitely did not help.
"For the last time Trixie, no!" Starlight yelled at the other unicorn rubbing her temples. This whole situation was apparently just as frustrating for her as for Twilight.
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Trixie argued, earning a glare from Starlight.
"I could come up with one, if you would shut up and let me think for five minutes!" Twilight caught the last part of their argument.
"What was that? Did you finally find a way to locate them?" she asked hopefully. Trixie was about to answer, but Starlight beat her to it.
"Not yet. We're still trying to figure out what kind of magic did this. Whatever it was, I've never seen anything like it before."
"But the traces of it's power are still there on spot where they disappeared!" Trixie added. "If Trixie could study it, we would be able to track it to wherever it took our friends and follow them!"
"And I told you about a hundred times already, it's too risky! We have no idea if they went somewhere dangerous or even if they went anywhere at all!" Starlight countered. Twilight thought about this idea for a moment, before eventually reaching the same conclusion as Starlight.
"Sorry, Trixie, but I'm with Starlight on this. We can't take that chance. I can't afford anymore of you disappearing to Faust knows where. I can barely keep the princess' disappearance hush-hush and I need the best unicorns here to figure out what happened and bring them back." Twilight reasoned. Trixie wasn't happy that Twilight also dismissed her idea, but it appealed to her ego how important Twilight thought she was so she didn't push it further.
"Thanks for settling that Twilight." Starlight sighed in relief. "With that out of the way, maybe we can get some real work done and actually find them." she said as she went back to the book she was studying.
"I'm sure you will. I have faith in you." Twilight said with a supportive look before leaving the two unicorns to their work.
In the Unfriendship universe, Cadence has finally reached the Crystal Palace, but ever since arriving into the city, she couldn't help but feel like something was very wrong. The Crystal Ponies, who were usually very happy when they saw her and didn't hesitate to interact with her, but when she ran into a few of her subjects, they were all very formal and just bowed deeply before trotting away. She couldn't stop wondering about why would they be so distant even by the time she reached the castle's library. Inside, there was one lonely mare working, organizing books on the shelves. She was so busy that she didn't even see Cadence walk in.
"Um, excuse me?" she addressed the mare, who immediately recognized the voice and jumped in fright before turning around and bowing deeply.
"Oh, forgive me your highness! I was so deep inside my work that I didn't notice you enter!" Cadende just waved it off.
"It's alright." she said, fully expecting the poor mare to get up but she remained on the ground, almost as it afraid to stand. "Um... could you stand up, please? I need your help." the librarian stood up and smiled up at the princess.
"I would be honored, your highness, but if I may be so bold, I thought you were supposed to meet with the representatives of the Empress of Magic in the throne room for the treaty negotiations." Cadence was utterly lost at the mention of this. Empress? Just what kind of changes have transpired in this world?
"The Empress... Of course... Their representatives could arrive at any moment, so I decided to make the most of my time and refresh my knowledge of recent events. I may find something to offer me a better position during the negotiation." Cadence explained, desperately hoping that she would buy it. She was lucky, as the librarian just bowed again with a helpful smile.
"I am at your service, Princess, but I'm afraid our archives are extremely limited. The Empress has been less than willing to reveal to us the inner working of her Regime." Cadence frowned. There must be a way to get the information she needs.
"It is no problem. I am more interested in a recount of the events that transpired since her ascension." she replied.
"I am happy to assist, your highness." the librarian bowed again, before returning to her work on the shelves as she began the story. "Five years ago, the changeling queen, Chrysalis tricked Twilight Sparkle into killing her parents and destroying Canterlot in the process." That one sentence was enough to make Cadence recoil in horror. Chrysalis did what? She was so horrified by what she heard that she barely heard as the librarian mare continued." Consumed by grief and rage, Twilight killed Chrysalis and from then on, she showed no restraint. She gathered herself a group of like-minded ponies, dethroned Princess Celestia and established the Equestrian Magical Regime. As judges, juries and executioners, she and her agents have all but eliminated crime and resistance inside the country. And now they are turning their attention towards outside threats. Against which they are hoping to unify all ponies. This meeting and treaty with us is the first step of that." Cadence needed some time to process this. She had a hard time imagining Twilight would be capable of something like this. Even in another universe.
'Twilight, how could you?' even after everything that happened, after all she learned from Celestia, she believed Twilight would have more self control than that. The librarian mare took off a book from the shelf and turned towards the princess.
"There you go, your highness. This contains all information we have on the Empress' Regime. Scarce as they are..." Cadence thanked her and turned around, only find herself face to face with a guard. For a moment, she was afraid what might happen - this wasn't her universe after all - but to her relief, the guard merely bowed before her.
"Your highness, the Empress' ambassadors are waiting for you in the throne room." he reported. Cadence frowned, she wasn't looking forward to this meeting in the slightest considering what she just learned, but in the end, she figured she might learn what Twilight had planned for the Crystal Empire.
Upon reaching the throne room, Cadence was greeted by two ponies she knew all too well, but when she saw them, they still looked and felt like strangers to her. Inside the room was Regime Fluttershy and Regime Rarity, both wearing ceremonial suits with short purple capes and the same purple star symbol with an eye in the middle of their chests that Cadence had seen in the book the librarian gave her. She had learned from there that this was the symbol Twilight's regime. To let everypony know that the Empress is always watching.
Despite her reservations, Cadence went to greet her guests. "Fluttershy, Rarity. It is a pleasure to greet you in the Crystal Empire again." she said, trying to sound as jovial as she could. The two ponies in front of her bowed their heads.
"The pleasure is all ours, your highness." Regime Fluttershy replied. Despite her joining a fascist dictatorship, her voice and behavior were as timid as ever. "It has been years since Equestrian representatives were allowed to visit the Empire. We hope this meeting will be the first step towards restoring the harmony between our nations."
"Yes." Cadence relied uncomfortably. "This... treaty will no doubt help us reconnect. An important moment for all of us." Regime Rarity nodded.
"Indeed. Twilight is happy you agreed to our terms." she then pulled out a parchment from her cloak and handed it to Cadence. "The final draft. All it need is your signature in order to be finalized."
Cadence looked at the parchment for a few moments before taking it and unfolding it with her magic. But what she read inside it was certainly not what she would call harmony and reconnection. Regime Fluttershy and Regime Rarity noticed her troubled expression immediately.
"Is there a problem, your highness?" Regime Rarity asked. Problem was the lightest way Cadence would have put it once she reached the end of the parchment. She turned towards the other two ponies with a scowl.
"You call this harmony and reconnection?! This is subjugation and subservience! I'm basically submitting my throne to Twilight!" Regime Fluttershy and Regime Rarity looked at each other in confusion.
"I... don't understand." Regime Fluttershy muttered. "You personally discussed the details of this treaty with the Empress and you agreed to all of her conditions." Cadence raised a brow at this. Did she do such a thing? According to what the librarian told her, it has been 5 years since the destruction of Canterlot, while for her, it has been just hours since she found herself in this world after she tried to stop Chrysalis from doing it. But right now, she had more important things to worry about.
"Well, tell your Empress that I have changed my mind!" she countered, setting the parchment ablaze and disintegrating it. Regime Fluttershy and Regime Rarity shared another concerned look.
"The Empress won't be happy to hear that, darling." Regime Rarity said. Cadence definitely didn't like the tone she used when she said this.
"Was that a threat, Rarity?" she all but snarled. Regime Fluttershy tried to intervene before things got out of hoof.
"We meant no disrespect, your highness, but our orders are to ensure the Crystal Empire's cooperation."
"By force, if necessary." Regime Rarity added, igniting her horn. Cadence didn't back down.
"I think of your orders the same as of your treaty! Twilight will NOT have the Crystal Empire!" she tried to blast Regime Fluttershy away, but Regime Rarity got in front of her and used a shield spell to defect the attack.
"That was a huge mistake!" she yelled, hitting her with a blast of her own. Candece flew up into the air to avoid them, but Regime Fluttershy followed her and managed to get a hold of her from behind. Regime Rarity tried to take advantage of this and charged her horn for a powerful attack, but Cadence teleported away just in time for the spell to hit Regime Fluttershy instead and blast her out of the air. Regime Rarity gasped in shock.
"Fluttershy! Oh, I'm so sorry, darling!" Cadence then appeared right next to her. Regime Rarity turned to her with a glare. "You'll pay for that!" but before she could do anything, Cadence lifted her up with telekinesis.
"How about you just settle down and take me to Twilight? I want to talk to her!"
"You don't talk to Twilight! You do what she says!" Regime Rarity replied, before unleashing a blast that was so strong it broke the telekinetic grip and knocked Cadence off balance. "And you're gonna do what you promised! Whether you like it or not!" Regime Rarity yelled as she started blasting at Cadence again. The princess took off into the air and while dodging Regime Rarity's blasts, she noticed the large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. She flew towards it and stopped right in front of it, before blasting at Regime Rarity herself.
The white unicorn could only avoid it by moving forward since she needed to get closer to Cadence for another attack and since she was already standing at the end of the room. She ran forward, dodging blasts from the princess and when she had one chance to return the fire, she did.
But of course, that was exactly what Cadence wanted. She moved out of the way just in time and Regime Rarity's blast hit the chandelier with enough force to make it fall. Before Regime Rarity knew what was happening, she was lying unconscious under the crystal formation. Cadnece flew down next to her.
"Between you and me, Rarity, you make a better stylist than a diplomat."
"There she is, your highness!" Cadence turned around and was in for the shock of her life when right next to the same guard who informed her of the arrival of the ambassadors, she saw an exact copy of herself, except wearing a crystal crown and a glistening crystal armor that covered her whole body except her wings, with spikes emerging from the shoulders. Her hair was much shorter than hers and on her hooves wore dark purple royal shoes. And on top of it, she wore an angry glare that Cadence had no idea she was capable of.
"Well, that settles it." Cadence said to herself. "This is a mirror universe." Regime Cadence marched up to her, followed by a batallion of crystal guards.
"What is the meaning of this?!" she demanded. "What are you? A changeling? Another of Discord's mind games?" Cadence did not falter.
"I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza! The princess of love and sovereign of the Crystal Empire, guardian and protector of the Crysal Ponies! Do you still remember what that means?" Regime Cadence deepened her glare.
"Mind how you talk to me, impostor!" she snapped, but Cadence ignored her.
"You would give away your empire like a broken toy to Twilight? After everything she's done, you would allow her to opress the crystal ponies whom you are supposed to protect and care for?!" she demanded. She was outraged that her counterpart would even consider such a step.
"The treaty requires Twilight to tend to the Crystal Heart and recognize the Empire's autonomy." Regime Cadence argued, but Cadence wasn't convinced in the slightest.
"She gets control of all the Empire's forces and resources!"
"That's what they call terms and negotiation!"
"Well I call it submission and appesement!" Regime Cadence scoffed.
"Who are you to judge me like this?! You have no idea what I went through!" she shouted with tears forming in her eyes. "Shining Armor died in Canterlot five years ago! My daughter hates me and left me to join Twilight! I was left all alone! Now I have the chance to reconnect with my friends and win back my daughter! I'm not going to pass it!" she ranted, but she didn't manage to invoke Cadence's sympathy.
"Oh, so you're just gonna allow Twilight to enslave the empire in exchange for a chance to see your daughter again. Some ruler you are." Cadence spat back. Regime Cadence stomped her hoof in anger.
"Enough of this! Guards, seize her!" the crystal guards surrounded Cadence and were about to attack. Cadence took up a defensive position, when suddenly she felt a magical wave sweep across the room. The next moment, everypony around her completely froze in place, including the guards who were already in midair, lunging at her. They didn't even fall to the ground, they remained perfectly still.
Cadence looked around in confusion, trying to figure out what just happened, before a voice came out of nowhere, answering her question.
"This was getting way too chaotic even for my taste." Cadence heard from behind her. She quickly spun around to see insurgency Discord leaning on the shoulder of her counterpart and slurping a glass of chocolate milk. Cadence narrowed her eyes at him.
"Discord!" she snarled. "What do you want?" Insurgency Discord quickly emptied his glass and tossed it behind his back before approaching Cadence.
"I felt the kind of chaos that I haven't felt in a long time since my Twilight is keeping such a tight grip on my Equestria. Things were getting pretty boring, so I decided to check it out. And I must admit, I like what I found here. Looks like Celestia finally found a way to take down Twilight. She wouldn't have yanked you and the others from your world over otherwise." Insurgency Discord explained. Cadence raised an eyebrow.
"Celestia? Are you saying she brought us into this world?" Insurgency Discord nodded.
"She sure did. She's gonna need the backup after all the ponies she lost in the fight against Twilight's Regime." Cadence lowered her head upon hearing this. The more she heard about the things Twilight has been doing in this world, the more hard she found to believe it. Insurgency Discord continued. "Ever since the rise of the Regime, Celestia has been leading the resistance force against them. But their numbers are getting fewer by eveyday. She must be getting desperate." Cadence decided that she had heard enough.
"I... I need some time to process this. Twilight overthrowing Celestia already sounds preposterous enough, but the two of them fighting a war over it..." Insurgency Discord nodded.
"Yes, I imagine this is a lot to take in. But time is sadly a luxury we can't afford. Your friends already had a run in with the Regime's forces so it won't be long before Twilight knows you're here. And then no matter what Celestia cooked up to defeat her, it will fail." Cadence frowned. She didn't like to admit it, but Insurgency Discord was right. She shuddered. Even thinking this just felt wrong.
"Very well. Send me to them."
Before Cadence could even blink, she found herself in a dark room she couldn't recognize. For a moment, she thought Insurgency Discord was playing a trick on her, but then she heard familiar voices coming from outside.
"Well how were we supposed to know?! You just pull us over into a mirror universe without asking us and you expect us to just stay put and wait for you to come and get us without trying to find out anything on our own?!" complained a voice that only could have been Rainbow Dash.
"Look, it doesn't matter now! All that matters is we need to bring Cadence back from the Empire!" Shining Armor replied as the voices got closer. Cadence heard a door opening and saw the three ponies who accompanied her to this strange world standing there and looking at her in surprise.
"You're good at this." Rainbow Dash told Shining after a few moments of awkward silence. The stallion just ignored her and ran over to his wife.
"Cadnece, thank goodness!" he exclaimed in relief as he nuzzled his wife. "How did you get here so fast?"
"Discord sent me here." Cadence replied. "Not our Discord!" she clarified, noticing the alarmed look on Rainbow's and Applejack's face. Shining just chuckled.
"We know the feeling, dear. Meet Not our Celestia." he said gesturing with his hoof towards the battered looking alternate version of the alicorn princess. Needless to say, Cadence didn't like the sight.
"Ce-Celestia? What in Faust's name happened to you?" she screamed in shock. Insurgency Celestia just stared at her dryly.
"Try leading a resistance effort against a tyrannical empress for five years with extremely limited resources while hiding in the shadows and let's see if you look any better." she replied. The four ponies around her just stared at her for a while before she sighed.
"I apologize. I have grown a little cynical during my years of fighting this war."
"Yeah, a little." Rainbow Dash retorted. Insurgency Celestia decided to ignore that remark.
"Anyway, now that you're all here, I believe it's time to reveal why I brought you here." she said as the five of them sat down around a table. "But first, take in the pills I gave you." Cadence noticed Shining, Rainbow and Applejack all following the instruction and pulling out small purple pills before putting them in their mouth. She looked at them in confusion.
"Did the interuniversal jump give you some sort of headache?" she asked.
"We're trying to prevent one actually." Shining replied, swallowing his pill. "It's one of Twilight's latest inventions. Turns out, this pill increases the consumer's regeneration, stamina and magic resisting capabilities to the levels of an alicorn."
"Long story short, ya can take a heck lot of punishment thanks to this thing." Applejack simplified.
"I'd like to see our Twilight boss me around when we go back now that I have taken this thing!" Rainbow Dash said in excitement after swallowing her own. This actually caused Insurgency Celestia to chuckle.
"I don't mean to bring your spirits down, Rainbow Dash, but the effects are temporary. Even if they were permanent, I doubt they would survive the effects of the interuniversal jump once you've returned home." she explained, causing Rainbow to sit back down in dejection.
"Twilight's been feeding it to her goons to keep her grip on this Equestria." Shining finished the explanation. Cadence lowered her head when she heard this.
"Yeah, I've heard the story. I went all the way up to the Crystal Empire to find out what kind of world we ended up in, only to run into my evil twin. And those of Rarity and Fluttershy."
"Fluttershy?!" Rainbow Dash jumped up in surprise. "Evil alicorns are one thing, but I can't imagine any version of Fluttershy in any world that could be evil! Forget evil, Fluttershy doesn't even know how to be mean!"
"They're not evil." Insurgency Celestia said. "Most of them obey Twilight out of fear. Like my Fluttershy or the Applejack you encountered back in Ponyville." Applejack let out an angry scoff. She still wasn't over that. "And there are those who believe she's right and have lost perspective. Chief among them is my Rainbow Dash who acts as Twilight's second in command. Little Scootaloo was among the casualties of the destruction of Canterlot five years ago. She could never get over it." This caused Rainbow Dash to think. If this were to happen to her Scootaloo, would she act any different? Applejack's expression grew even more sour.
"So, that's it? Everypony just left ya for Twilight?"
"Not everypony." the four ponies from the main universe jumped in surprise as one as the pony who spoke entered the room. It was a pony they all knew, albeit not in a positive way. It was Insurgency Sombra. He looked much tamer than the one in their universe. He had a perfectly combed hair and instead of his dark armor, he was wearing a light brown suit.
"What is this?!" Cadence yelled as she stepped back in fright. Shining Armor stood in front of her protectingly.
"How are you even alive?" he demanded. Insurgency Celestia raised her hoof to calm them down.
"Calm down everypony. He's with me."
"I'm finding that impossible to believe!" Rainbow Dash said, ready to attack, but Insurgency Celestia held her back with her magic. Insurgency Sombra walked to the table and sat down next to Insurgency Celestia.
"Unlike your Sombra, I never tried to enslave the Crystal Empire. I have always been a faithful advisor to the Princess. But sadly, I can't support Celestia and her Insurgency as much as I'd like to. Twilight's agents are watching my every move. Faithful as I may have been to Equestria all these years, Twilight doesn't believe that Celestia's own husband would turn on her." he told them as he and Insurgency Celestia gently touched forehooves.
"HUSBAND?!" the four other ponies in the room screamed in unison.
"And here I was thinking Twilight going evil was the strangest thing that could happen in this world!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Insurgency Celestia turned back to them.
"Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get down to business." She summoned another pill with her magic and offered it to Cadence.
"Here, you should take one too." Cadence looked at her with a questioning look.
"Uh... I'm already an alicorn, remember?" insurgency Celestia wasn't amused.
"I am well aware of it, thank you. But it won't do you any good here. Twilight has developed a spell that severely depowers alicorns. You'll need this just to survive." that was all the encouragement Cadence needed.
"So that's why you can't just go all celestial on Twilight's flank and reclaim your kingdom." Rainbow Dash said. Insurgency Celestia nodded.
"But with the four of you here, I can finally set my new plan in motion. Sombra, if you please." Insurgency Sombra nodded and used his magic to show an image of some sort of armor that seemed to have been designed for a unicorn with a horn on top of the helmet.
"I have been able to design a suit that could restore Celestia's alicorn powers for one blast that can take down Twilight."
"One blast with a very specific spell I developed. If used with my full power, it can strip Twilight of her alicorn status and powers. When Sombra built a prototype with resources from the Regime, I have had a few of my agents hide it in the Everfree Forest in the ruins of my old castle that I shared with Luna. I need your help to access it."
The four ponies from the main universe turned to look at each other. It sounded like this trip to this universe was about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle, the Empress of Magic, Regime Twilight Sparkle herself was standing in the dungeons practicing a new mind control spell she developed on Regime Tirek. While she only recruited ponies into the rank of her Regime, she couldn't deny that under the right hooves, the likes of Tirek could be useful instruments.
The spell worked like a charm - pun intended - Regime Twilight smirked as she saw how easily she could control him. Truly she has come a long way. This will be very useful in furthering the Regime's influence.
"You actually did it." she heard a voice. She didn't look behind, but she recognized it as Regime Rainbow Dash. The pegasus walked up next to Regime Twilight, wearing an exact replica of the armor of Commander Hurricane, the leader of the pegasi when the three pony tribes were united. "I have to admit, I had doubts, but if you can control him, you can control anypony!" Regime Twilight nodded.
"Indeed. I already have a few candidates in mind. With them under our influence, it'll be no time before we crush the Insurgency." Regime Rainbow smirked in approval.
"Oh, by the way, AJ is here. She said she had a very important thing to report to you." she said looking at Regime Twilight. She actually had to look up now to do that as Regime Twilight now stood at the full size of an alicorn with the same sized horn, wings and ethereal mane. Regime Twilight nodded at her.
"Send her in." Regime Rainbow Dash nodded and left the room. A few seconds later, Regime Applejack entered.
"Empress!" she yelled as she ran up to her. Regime Twilight looked at her and noticed her battered state.
"Ran into trouble, I assume?" she asked. Regime Applejack nodded.
"Just got out of the infirmary! I've been sent there after an encounter with somepony who looked a lot like... well me. And Rainbow Dash. And..." it was obvious that she was nervous to add this one. "...Shining Armor." Regime Twilight considered what the farmpony told her for a few seconds before turning back to her.
"Find them. And any others that might be out there. I want to know everything." Regime Applejack bowed and left the room leaving Regime Twilight to her thoughts. Regime Fluttershy and Regime Rarity also reported a Cadence doppelgänger when they returned from the Crystal Empire. There was no way this was a coincidence.
"Just what are you up to now, Celestia?"
Author's Note
And that's chapter 3 done with Princess Cadence! I hope you liked it! 🙂
Fluttershy was also Flash in Mr. Astounding's Version and I mostly tried avoiding using the same cast, but after I've cast Rainbow Dash as Wonder Woman I didn't have anypony else left for that role.
Rarity as Shazam might be an odd choice, but it'll make sense once you see who I'm planning to cast as Supergirl for the sequel. 😉
If you liked it please comment!
Next time, we'll be following the main universe's Queen Chrysalis take on the forces Twilight's Regime and meet the Changeling Resistance lead by King Thorax. Stay tuned!
Chapter 4: Queen Chrysalis
It didn't take long for the news about the doppelgängers of high ranking Regime members like Applejack and Rainbow Dash to spread across their ranks. Since those reports originated from Ponyville, Regimers doubled their numbers in the town in order to find them. Another carriage of troops just arrived from Canterlot, receiving instructions on their new assignment as they left the transport vehicle before it's doors closed and it moved out.
"Alright, everypony! You know your job!" the commander of the unit barked. "Move out and find those impostors! Strong Shield, Longbow, you're with me! Iron Heart, you go and join the unit sweeping through the lower section of the city! They reported clashes with insurgent forces! They'll need all the help they can get!" The ponies saluted and went to carry out their orders. Private Iron Heart walked away from the spot and looked around to see if the coast was clear, before transforming from a grey unicorn to the changeling queen, Chrysalis. She chuckled darkly to herself as she walked on.
"I'm afraid, Private Iron Heart won't be joining any operation in the future, commander. Almost a shame for such a fine young colt, he even had a wife with a foal well on the way. Oh, well, that only made his love all the sweeter." she said, walking deeper into the town. She didn't like to admit it, but she wasn't sure what she should do. From what she gathered, she was in a completely different world where Twilight ruled Equestria with an iron hoof and she was dead. Well, her counterpart was anyway. She supposed maybe she should try to seek out her changelings since she won't be able to do much by herself. Even survival will be tricky in this world.
She looked around the town. It was dead silent. She was surprised that even during the night no ponies were out. Maybe Regime Twilight also instituted some sort of curfew. Not that she was complaining. It made it easier for her to move around undetected.
"Gotta give it to Twilight, she cleaned this place up nicely. Too bad it apparently took her killing me to become a proper ruler." she mused. "So, what should we do now? I can't stay anywhere for too long with Twilight's soldiers patrolling everywhere. The changelings of this world probably need a good leader, since their Chrysalis is dead. But how could I find them? I can sense a few of them nearby, but they probably won't reveal themselves with so many pony guards around." she suddenly stopped her emotion scanning and narrowed her eyes as she noticed something."
"And I can feel something else too. It's getting closer... It feels like..." she turned around and blasted Princess Celestia in the muzzle with her strongest spell. The alicorn princess flew backwards and crashed into the trash containers next to the wall. "... a nosy princess snooping around."
Celestia groaned in pain as she tried to get up. She had been following Chrysalis ever since she managed to get away from the guards who have been chasing her since they arrived into this strange world, but she had to wait for the right moment to strike since from what she gathered from a few locals aiding the Insurgency who helped her evade her pursuers, she was the most wanted 'criminal' in the country. These locals have told her of the unfortunate events that transpired in this world. She was shocked of course, but her main concern was Chrysalis. This world's Chrysalis had already caused unimaginable suffering and chaos here once. She can't let hers do the same.
And she thought that maybe once she was done with the changeling queen, she could help this world's ponies too. She learned that her counterpart is the leader of the resistance effort against Twilight, also some of the ponies from her world also ended here. Together, they could liberate this world easily. But for now, she had a love sucking parasite to deal with.
"Sneaking up on me, Celestia? I expected more from you." Chrysalis chuckled. Celestia just glared in response.
"This may not be my world, but that doesn't mean I'll just let you spread your evil here in when it's already so full of misery." she was about to walk over to the changeling to finally deal with her, but she ended up collapsing from the pain she felt in her forehoof and her wing. She apparently twisted them upon impact when Chrysalis blasted her away.
"Oh, poor little pwincess hurt her hoofsie?" Chrysalis cooed mockingly, before her expression changed into a vicious snarl. "Let's see how much more of it you can take." Celestia tried to back away from her, but due to her injured hoof, she could barely move and with her hurt wing, flying away won't be an option either. So she tried to simply blast her away. But Chrysalis was just too fit compared to the princess. She teleported behind Celestia and easily subdued her. She forced her onto her back and crawled over her.
"The idea of being able to feast on divine, alicorn love..." Chrysalis purred sickeningly as she sniffed at Celestia's mane. "You have so many ponies to love, so much love to give. It's so unfair that only ponies get to experience it." she was about to suck Celestia for all she was worth, but as she started taking in the emotions around her, she felt something else. Something far less tasty. A few sources of negative emotions were approaching fast. Chrysalis scowled. "I hate it when they interrupt my meal." she snarled, before turning back to the princess, giving her a knock on the head to make sure she stays down. "Looks like we'll have to postpone our little dinner date. Don't worry, I'm saving a seat just for you." she said, before skulking away to hide in the alleyways. Celestia was about to get up too, but before she could, she found herself pinned down to the ground by a net.
"Well, well, well." mused Regime Applejack, holding a net gun over her shoulder. "We come down here all the way from Canterlot to catch us some copyponies and we end up baggin' the big cheese herself. Quite a feat in under one day's work if ye ask me." Celestia struggled to get out of the net, but her efforts were in vain. Regime Applejack chuckled.
"No use in strugglin'. The Empress' weapons are designed to drain magic from our targets. The stonger the magic is, the more effective they are." she then turned to another figure next to her, whom Celestia recognized as this universe's version of Spitfire and a couple of other Wonderbolts. "Take her to the nearest prison camp. I'll notify the Empress." she instructed as she took out a comm crystal as the Regime Wonderbolts carried the alicorn off.
Regime Twilight was on her way back to the throne room from the dungeons after she was finished with Regime Tirek. Her mind control spell was working even better than she expected. She was already planning her trip to the Regime's prison to use her new 'recruitment' method on a few prisoners they captured from the Insurgency's ranks, but she was interrupted by her comm crystal beeping. She took it out and saw the image of Regime Applejack appear.
"What is it? Have you found those doppelgängers already?" she asked. The image of Regime Applejack in front of her smiled brightly.
"Even better. We captured none other than Celestia herself!" this caught Regime Twilight by surprise.
"Where is she?"
"Spitfire is takin' her to our Ponyville Prison as we talk." Regime Applejack answered. Regime Twilight narrowed her eyes. This was something she had to see for herself.
"Join Spitfire and keep her there! I'll be there in an hour." she ordered. Regime Applejack bowed and the image faded. Regime Twilight thought deeply about what the earth pony just told her. The former Princess Celestia, the most powerful and resourceful pony in existence captured by a simple patrol unit equipped with only net guns? This simply wasn't possible. There has to be something more behind this. Was a Celestia doppelgänger also running around in Equestria? Her new 'recruits' will have to wait. This matter required her immediate attention.
Back in Ponyville, Chrysalis watched from the shadows as the regimers took away Celestia and left. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she turned around and walked deeper into the alley.
"Leave it to Celestia to screw things up for me even worse than they already are! No doubt even more of Twilight's goons are already on their way here. How am I supposed to get out of here now?!"
"I might be able to help with that." Chrysalis heard a voice coming from behind her. She turned around to see the outlines of a changeling slowly emerging from the shadows. He was completely unremarkable, resembling a simple drone, but somehow, Chrysalis still managed to recognize him.
"Thorax?" she asked in surprise, wondering what he was doing there.
"Actually, it's King Thorax, Leader of the Changeling Resistance now. At your service." he replied with a slight bow. Chrysalis didn't look impressed.
"Wow, try to fit that on a business card." she said flatly. "How is it that I die and a grub like you sits on my throne?" Insurgency Thorax's expression turned into a frown when he heard that question.
"We don't really have a throne anymore. After the destruction of Canterlot, changelings were hunnted everywhere and killed on sight. The survivors had to come together and create resistance cells to survive." he explained.
"I came here because my scouts reported seeing a changeling who infiltrated the Regime's ranks. Twilight had cast a spell on major Equestrian cities that reveals changeling disguises. Only a queen could be powerful enough to resist it. I've also heard the reports of the Regime dobblegangers, so it didn't take long to connect the dots. So tell me, what is the Queen Chrysalis of a mirror universe doing here?"
Chrysalis thought long and clear about how should she reply. She had to get out of this world as quickly as possible, but with Twilight keeping such a strong hold on this Equestria, she won't be able to survive long enough to find a way. But maybe with the help of this world's changelings, she might just accomplish it. With a plan formed in her mind, she turned back to Insurgency Thorax.
"Why, I've come to help you and your Changeling Resistance of course. I couldn't just sit tight in my world and allow changelings to go extinct here or in any other world." she told him, praying he will buy it. She was lucky, because Insurgency Thorax's face lit up bright when he heard this.
"That's wonderful! Chrysalis is still considered to be a hero and a martyr by many of us! Oh, maybe we might even fabricate some kind of story about how you miraculously survived Twilight's attack! It would bring us some much needed cheer and joy to finally hear some good news!" Chrysalis smiled smugly. This will be easier than she thought.
"Then let's not waste any time! Take me to them!" she ordered.
Later that night, Empress Twilight Sparkle had arrived to the Regime's Poniville prison camp, accompanied by Regime Rainbow Dash. The guards stationed outside all bowed before them as they entered the facility. Inside, Regime Spitfire was waiting for them. Regime Twilight ordered her to escort her to the cell where Celestia was being held.
Inside said cell, Regime Applejack was standing guard, waiting for the empress to arrive. In the middle of the cell was lying the Princess Celestia in chains, still struggling in vain to break the chains with her magic. The door of the cell opened and the Empress entered followed by Regime Rainbow Dash. When Regime Spitfire was about to enter, Regime Twilight raised a hoof in front of her.
"You are no longer needed here, Spitfire. Return to your mission and aid the search for the doppelgängers." Regime Spitfire had to use every bit of her mental willpower not to glare at the empress for the dismissive and disrespectful tone she spoke to her with and just left with a slight bow. Regime Twilight walked up to Celestia. The alicorn of the sun looked up at the alternate version of her student and she was not pleased with what she saw. If this was her Twilight all grown up to alicorn size and ready to take over from her as the ruler of Equestria after all those years of hard studies and incredible magical feats, she would have been impressed and proud. But it wasn't. Gone was the loving and caring young Princess of Friendship and in her place was a cold and malicious Empress who was ruling her Equestria with an iron hoof and every part of her was reeking with darkness and ruthlessness. And Celestia was both disgusted and terrified.
After a few seconds of looking her over, the Empress turned back towards Regime Applajack, who instantly grew nervous as she could see in the eyes of her empress that she wasn't pleased.
"This is not her." Regime Twilight stated simply. Regime Applejack just stared dumbfounded at Twilight and surprisingly, Regime Rainbow Dash had the same expression.
"Wha... What do ya mean?! Changelings can't disguise themselves around Ponyville and nopony would be insane enough to shapeshift into the most wanted pony in yer police state! Who else could this be but Celestia?!" Regime Applejack complained. Regime Rainbow Dash actually had to elbow her in the side to calm her down. She shot her a look to remind her just whom she was speaking to before she said something she might regret. Regime Applejack realized this and quickly backed down, but luckily for her, the Empress didn't seem to care about her tone.
"It IS Celestia, but not the Celestia we're looking for. Her magic feels different and I feel she's five years younger. Not to mention my guards reported her eye have been badly wounded during a previous skirmish not too long ago. There's no way my Celestia could have healed that so quickly on the weakened state she's in." Regime Twilight then returned her attention to the white alicorn on the floor. "You must be one of those doppelgängers I've been hearing so much about." The main universe's Celestia just looked up at her with a blank expression.
"I may not be your Celestia, but I believe I share her disappointment with you and your actions." she answered. Regime Twilight scowled.
"Well, you certainly share her ability to condescend, I'll give you that."
"But one thing we do not share is our teaching skills. Your Celestia obviously hadn't taught you well if you weren't able surpess your dark urges for vengeance." Celestia lectured. Empress Twilight narrowed her eyes, then turned back to Regime Applejack and Regime Rainbow Dash.
"Leave us." she ordered. The two bowed and left the cell. Regime Twilight then turned back to Celestia.
"I already tried justifying my actions to my Celestia and it fell on deaf ears. I'm not going to bother repeating myself. Let's get down to business. Why did you and your companions come here?" she demanded, lighting up her horn. Celestia's expression remained stoic. Her arrival to this world was a mystery to her as well, but even if she knew anything, this Twilight wouldn't get anything out of her.
"I made it clear where I stand concerning your violent takeover of this Equestria and your cruel oppression of it's little ponies. Beyond that, I have nothing more to say to you." Regime Twilight leaned closer.
"Then I'll look into it myself. I've not perfected my mind reading spell yet, so it's gonna be painful, especially if you resist. Which I know you're gonna do anyway. Also, I hope you don't mind if I pretend you're my Celestia. It's gonna make this much sweeter." Regime Twilight then pressed her horn against Celestia's and the only thing that could be heard throughout the prison camp for the next hour were the screams of the alicorn princess.
Chrysalis was more than a little surprised when Insurgency Thorax teleported her right to Canterlot, the capital of Equestria and the center of the Regime's operations. Not only that, but right next to the rebuilt Canterlot Castle, into the statue garden.
Insurgency Thorax explained to her that while Twilight's magical barriers made it impossible for changelings to disguise themselves and infiltrate the ranks of the Regime, this was a double edged sword as the ponies spent so much time and effort into finding disguised Changeling spies, that they paid almost no mind whatsoever to finding undisguised changelings in hiding. Of which there were still many left. They have been hiding right under Regime Twilight's nose and she never even noticed. Chrysalis was impressed. She now understood how Insurgency Thorax became King.
She was even more impressed how easily he convinced these Changelings of his tale about her being their Chrysalis. They were currently celebrating with her being in the middle of the garden, surrounded by Insurgency Thorax and his subjects who were all clapping and cheering for her. For the first time since she arrived in this world, she finally felt like things were going her way.
"My dear subjects, I am happy to make my return and help you through these difficult times. I admire the work King Thorax has done during the time of my recovery. He played those Regime idiots like instruments when he was hiding you and his guerilla tactics are more than efficient. But I believe it's time to up our game to the next level." she then pulled out the alicorn pill she took from Insurgency Thorax when he wasn't looking.
"From what Thorax told me, Twilight made this pill for her troops. And Celestia's insurgents also got their hooves on some and now we have them too. If we take these, all four of the alicorn princesses could blast us with all their might and the worst we'll get is a tan." she then swallowed the pill as the changelings around her cheered. Except for Insurgency Thorax, who looked a little nervous.
"Hey, I did tell her about that, but I don't remember giving her one..." he said to himself, but the changelings around him quickly shushed him. Chrysalis continued.
"And now, we can continue where we left off. Changelings will once again be the hunters, never the hunted! It's the return of our pride, our identity! It's the return of QUEEN Chrysalis!" all the changelings around her once again exploded with cheer, except for Insurgency Thorax who was now more than a little concerned.
"Okay, I definitely didn't tell her that. This isn't what we agreed on." he was about to go over to Chrysalis and talk with her, but before he could, the speech was interrupted by a large group of ponies breaking through the hedges with spears and started attacking the changelings. Insurgency Thorax jumped in surprise.
"Damn! I knew we won't be able to stay hidden forever!" he then turned to one of his changelings. "Go get Celestia!" the changeling nodded and flew off. Insurgency Thorax ran up to Chrysalis, who was already busy fighting one of the guards. She managed to disarm him and take his spear, but in doing so, she left an opening to a unicorn guard who ran up to her and blasted her with a powerful spell. To his surprise, Chrysalis barely stumbled.
"Well, what do you know? These pills are really just what the doctor ordered!" she laughed before plunging her spear into the unfortunate unicorn. But her triumph was short lived as a yellow streak flew in and carried her off into the air. Insurgency Thorax was about to follow them and help her, but he was interrupted by a blast from a young alicorn filly.
Regime Flurry Heart walked into the garden and found herself surrounded by three changelings who naturally saw her as easy pray, but Regime Flurry immediately proved them wrong by blasting all three of them away at the same time with three energy blasts from her horn. She smirked. They should have known better than to take on the Empress' student.
Meanwhile Chrysalis was being held in the air by Regime Spitfire. The Pegasus was on duty back in Ponyville as Regime Twilight ordered, but she got a comm crystal call from Regime Flurry Heart that a group of changelings have been spotted in the capital and she ordered her to help her investigate. As if Regime Twilight didn't give her enough crap to deal with, now she was ordered around by a foal. Way to add insult to injury.
"Back from the dead, are we? That takes some nerve with a whole world never wanting to see your chitinned hide again." Regime Spitfire snarled. Chrysalis just smirked.
"Hide isn't good for you? How about horn then?" she asked, blasting Regime Spitfire away and landing on the ground safely. Regime Spitfire turned back to her.
"Oh, I'm not complaining. You have no idea how much I wanted this chance. After Twilight took over, I was stripped of my rank as commander of the Wonderbolts, along with many other high ranking officers in every organization for not being able to prevent Canterlot or save more lives. I was relegated to nothing more than a grunt in Twilight's Regime, scorned and dismissed by all of my superiors. But now I have a chance for some payback." Chrysalis was growing tired of this and did a mock yawn.
"Are you done? Sorry, but when did I indicate that I'm interested in your sob story?" Regime Spitfire's eyes narrowed.
"You're gonna be the one sobbing, Chrysalis! Twilight already had her turn in killing you. I'm sure she won't mind if I'll take mine!" she then flew at Chrysalis, but the changeling raised an energy barrier around herself. Regime Spitfire ended up crashing into it and sliding down on it to the ground. Chrysalis licked her lips, anticipating a nice meal, but Regime Spitfire wasn't done yet.
She flew up, grabbing Chrysalis in the process, then turned around and slammed her into the ground. She then punched her across the face repeatedly, before Chrysalis caught her hoof and blasted her off of her, right into a tree. She then used her magic to wrap Regime Spitfire up in the vines hanging from the tree and walked up to her.
"Love is sweet, but hate is spicy. And I have to admit, once in a while, I do enjoy a spicy meal." she mused as she was about to suck Regime Spitfire dry, before she was interrupted by a fast, white blur that carried her up into the air and then kicked her into the ground. Regime Flurry Heart blasted at Chrysalis, but she intercepted with a blast of her own before standing up. She stared at Regime Flurry Heart for a few moments before recognizing her.
"Hey, you're Shining Armor's and Cadence's brat. Does your mother know that you're out fighting changelings past your bedtime?" she asked mockingly. Regime Flurry glared.
"Cadence is as worhtles as a mother as she is as a ruler. I fight alongside Twilight to keep Equestria safe from scum like you." Regime Flurry then blasted at Chrysalis again, only to have the blast just bounce off of the changeling. Taking advantage of her opponent's momentary shock over this. Chrysalis flew at her and punched in the jaw, sending her back several meters.
Regime Flurry got up and charged at Chrysalis. Right when she got close to her, she flew down on the ground and slid through between Chrysalis' legs to get behind her before jumping on her back.
"Let's see how well you fly without your wings!" she snarled, grabbing Chrysalis' wings and pulling on them as hard as she could. The changeling struggled to get her off her back, but no matter how hard she jumped around and bucked, the kid was stronger then she looked. And she was still small enough that Chrysalis couldn't lean her head back far enough to blast her off.
The changeling queen was only saved by a golden yellow blast that knocked Regime Flurry off her back and rendered her unconscious. Regime Spitfire - who was still literally wrapped up but was more than happy to watch Regime Flurry tear Chrysalis apart from her seat - looked into the direction where the blast came from and saw that the battle had new participants in the image of Insurgents Celestia and the doppelgängers from the other world. This was getting out of hoof. Even if she could wake Regime Flurry, the two of them wouldn't be enough to fight the alicorn of the sun off, even in her weakened state. She managed to get free of the hold of the vines and flew over to pick up Regime Flurry and fly away with her. Who knows, maybe the fact that she saved the insufferable brat would be enough to win back some favor with Regime Twilight. Chrysalis, who was about to devour Regime Flurry's love watched as the pegasus flew off with her meal and growled. She lost count on how many times they interrupted her meal today.
With the help of Insurgency Celestia and the main world ponies, the battle was over quickly. The guards who ambushed the changeling meeting have all been rounded up, with a few exceptions that were killed.
Insurgency Celestia walked up to Insurgency Thorax who just finished tying up a brown pegasus. "Thanks for showing up so fast, princess. We were getting our flanks handed to us." Insurgency Celestia nodded.
"I would have come sooner, but it took some convincing to get my companions not to kill your messenger." the ponies from the main world looked down in embarrassment.
"I still can't believe you work with changelings." Rainbow Dash said, eyeing the insectoids with suspicion and slight disgust.
"Me and Thorax are in the same situation, Rainbow Dash." Insurgency Celestia explained. "Leading a resistance against the same enemy that threatens the very survival of our followers. An alliance was logical."
"How's that for strange bedfellows?" Shining Armor quipped to himself. Just then, Insurgency Thorax's brother, Insurgency Pharynx walked up to the group.
"I told you the statue garden was a bad pick for a hideout." he scolded his brother. Insurgency Thorax looked down.
"I know. I made a mistake. I let myself believe that I could stay hidden right under the nose of my enemies and many paid for my mistake. I promise I'll find a way to fix it."
"You might already have." Chrysalis mused as she joined the conversation, looking over the hostages they have taken. "These ponies should be enough to keep your changelings going for a few weeks." Insurgency Thorax found himself on the receiving end of several glares from the main world ponies.
"What is she doing here?!" Rainbow Dash yelled, flying at Chrysalis and shoving her to the ground.
"That is actually a fairly good question, Rainbow Dash." Insurgency Celestia added looking over at Insurgency Thorax. "Would you mind explaining this?"
"I met her in Ponyville and I thought she could help us. Many changelings stoll hold her in high regard for sacraficing her life to break Twilight and harmony to leave Equestria vulnerable for us. Even if it backfired spectacularly." Insurgency Thorax explained. Shining and Cadence glared at him before turning to Insurgency Celestia.
"Do you really need their help?" Shining asked. To his shock, Insurgency Celestia nodded.
"Yes. Besides them, all I have is the handful of guards who stayed loyal to me and refused to follow Twilight, the remaining members of the Apple clan and a few Wonderbolts defectors. And even with the changelings we're still badly outnumbered. Without them our situation would be pretty much hopeless." Insurgency Thorax and Insurgency Pharynx gave a triumphant smirk to the glaring main world ponies.
"However, Chrysalis is someone I definitely don't need or want around. And I don't remember bringing her over." Insurgency Celestia added as she turned to glare at the queen. Cadence suddenly realized something.
"Wait a second. If she is here, that means our Celestia has probably come over too!" she realized with horror. Insurgency Celestia's eyes widened.
"Oh, Faust! This is an oversight I did not anticipate. That would explain the reports of my scouts about Celestia being arrested by The Regime!"
"Well, then what are we waitin' for?" Applejack panicked. "If our Celestia is captured, we'll have to save her!" Chrysalis saw this as an opportunity to save face.
"I was there when she was captured." she said. "I could help you find her." the ponies were not having any of it.
"You will do nothing, but stay put and silent unless you want me to deliver you to the Regime myself." this instantly made Chrysalis shut up. "If we complete our mission to overthrow Twilight, your Celestia will be freed as well." Insurgency Celestia told the others.
"Is there a mission I wasn't told about?" Insurgency Thorax asked enthusiastically. "Private King Thorax reporting for duty." he said with a bright smile and salute. Insurgency Celestia couldn't help but chuckle.
"I appreciate your spirit, Thorax, but I will have to refuse. Now that Twilight knows your changelings have been hiding here the whole time, she will no doubt come down on you harder than ever before. Your duty is to your subjects now. Take them to safety." she then turned to Chrysalis." As for you, you are too dangerous to be walking around." she motioned for Rainbow Dash to move aside and she took Chrysalis into her custody. "Wait for me at the entrance of the Everfree Forest. I will meet you there." she told the main world ponies as she lead Chrysalis away. "I have a nice, cozy cell at the Insurgency's Headquarters where I can keep my eyes on you."
"Oh, can we have a slumber party?" Chrysalis asked sarcastically, earning a shove to the back of the head.
Insurgency Sombra was just returning to his Canterlot mansion from the meeting with the insurgents and he was escorted from the gates to the door by two guards. He turned to them as he reached the door.
"Thank you, gentlecolts, but I need no assistance to find my keys." he told them as he entered the door and closed it. "These guards are a real pain in the flank." he signed to himself as he walked into his living room. He really wished Regime Twilight would loosen his leash a little. It took him a body double and an Insurgency ambush to slip away unnoticed to meet his Celestia and the main world ponies.
"Look on the bright side. At least they were so focused on you that they never noticed me sneaking in here." Insurgency Sombra jumped in surprise and turned to see Insurgency Sunset Shimmer chilling on his couch. He narrowed his eyes.
"Sunset! What are you doing here?" he demanded. Insurgency Sunset scoffed.
"I thought you'd be happier to see me. After all, you have been trying for so long to recruit me into your little club."
"But then I realized you don't give two bits about your homeworld and you would gladly bail out on us and leave us to rot while you live merrily in the human world." Insurgency Sunset narrowed her eyes.
"I may have been born here, but the human world is my homeworld."
"Oh, yeah?" Insurgency Sombra asked bitterly. "Then why didn't you go back there right away when you were freed?" Silence hung in the air around them for a few seconds, before Insurgency Sunset locked eyes with Insurgency Sombra, her own eyes practically blazing.
"I have a bone to pick with them first."
Author's Note
Wow! This chapter got way longer than I expected. But I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.
Next time we'll be joining Shining Armor and the other insurgents to pick up Celestia's anti alicorn device, but of course, it won't be a walk in the park, or should I say, forest.
Stay tuned. 😉
Back in the main world's Canterlot Castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle was rubbing her head in exasperation. She was currently sitting in Celestia's workroom, looking over the damage reports from the battle earlier that day. Fortunately, they weren't as bad as she expected, but that didn't do much to improve her mood. With Celestia and Cadence still missing and Luna still recovering, she was the only princess to handle these kind of things until the others were found. And in order to keep up an image of normality throughout Equestria, she had to, and that meant working like never before. Not to mention she also had to send Spike and the other half of the Mane 6 to the Crystal Empire to keep them from panicking about the disappearance of their ruler. That, combined with her concern of her disappeared friends' whereabouts caused her the biggest headache she had in quite some time.
"Celestia, how much I wish this was just another test of yours." she sighed, raising another paper in front of her after finishing with the previous one. Her work was interrupted, when the door was slammed open and Starlight and Trixie rushed in. Twilight was so surprised and overwhelmed with work that she didn't even notice the bright grins on their faces.
"Girls, unless it's good news, I don't want to hear it." she groaned.
"Very good news!" Starlight beamed. "We found them!" Twilight's eyes widened.
"Y-You have?! Well, where are they?!"
"In a mirror universe." Starlight answered. "We don't know how they got there yet, but we have an idea how to bring them back." Twilight grinned so wide that it would have put Pinkie Pie to shame. This was the first good news she's heard all they.
"I'll call the girls back from the Empire and once they are back we can leave right away!" she was about to spring out of her chair, but Starlight stopped her.
"No need. We're not going after them." Twilight was dumbstruck by this.
"What? Well, how are we bringing them back then?" Starlight looked like she was struggling with her next sentence.
"As much as I hate to admit it, the credit goes to Trixie for the solution." Trixie smiled proudly before she began to explain.
"We'll use the crystal mirror and pull them back into our world. It's not gonna be easy, but the three of us can get it done." Trixie explained. Twilight thought about this for a few seconds.
"No risk to an away team." she concluded with a small smile. "Good thinking, Trixie. I'll get the crystal mirror ready. Meanwhile, you try to locate their position as specifically as possible. That's gonna make this much easier." Trixie and Starlight nodded and left to finish their work.
In the Unfriendship world, Insurgency Celestia and the main world's ponies were making their way through the Eveefree Forest. If it was possible, it looked even more unwelcoming than it did in their world. Through they probably shouldn't have been that surprised about this, it fit in well with the rest of this world.
"And I thought our Eveefree Forest was creepy." Rainbow Dash complained. Applejack who was walking next to her turned to her with a teasing smile.
"What's wrong, Dashie? Ah didn' reckon you as the type who gets scared so easily." Rainbow Dash shot her a light glare.
"Me? Scared? In your dreams, AJ. I just..." she was interrupted by a wolfish howl in the distance, which made her jump and embrace the farm pony next to her, until she realized what she was doing and quickly jumped away from her. Applejack chuckled
"It's okay, sugarcube. Ya can hold mah hoof if you wanna." she said with a wink. Rainbow just groaned.
"Couldn't your agents just deliver this thing directly to you?" she asked Insurgency Celestia.
"No. There was too much of a risk that Twilight's agents might have been following them and that would have given away the location of our headquarters." she explained. "Sadly, it ended up being the right call. After they hid it in the ruins of the old castle they were ambushed by Regime forces that were tailing them. The device was hidden by a very special magical seal only I know how to unlock. But even so, they refused to tell them why they were out here. They were all executed and..." she then stopped.
"And what?" Applejack asked, but when she looked at the spot where Insurgency Celestia was looking, she got her answer. Right in front of them, were a bunch of pony corpses impaled on spikes standing out from the ground.
"...and left here as deterrence." Insurgency Celestia finished. The four other ponies stared at the sight in horror. But Applejack's horror was perhaps the biggest as she recognized the clothing of one of the bodies.
"Is... Is that Braeburn?" she stuttered. Celestia grimly nodded.
"Yes. He and a group of other Apples were tasked with hiding my anti-alicorn device out here. They remained defiant to the end." the next pony to get over his horror was Shining Armor.
"Twi... Twilight did this?" he asked. Insurgency Celestia could barely bring herself to answer.
"She interrogated them personally and killed them when they refused to talk. They were left here like this on her order." Shining couldn't fathom what he was hearing. Cadence noticed the distress of her husband and put a hoof on his shoulder.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"I'm fine. It's just..." he was struggling to find the right words. "I... I still can't believe that Twily could possibly lose it this bad. Even with what Chrysalis did. I just can't see my little sister becoming this... this monster!" no one understood his disbelief better than Insurgency Celestia. But they didn't know the full story yet, so they couldn't possibly understand it yet.
"I share your sentiments Shining Armor, but I'm afraid there's more to it than what you know." they all looked up at her.
"What do you mean?" Shining asked. Celestia sighed.
"The way Twilight sees it, it was her who destroyed Canterlot all those years ago." the other ponies had a hard time wrapping their minds around this.
"How is that?" asked Shining.
"The librarian in the Crystal Empire told me that Chrysalis tricked Twilight into killing her parents and that Canterlot was destroyed in the process, but I still don't really see the connection." Cadence said.
"Chrysalis foalnapped Night Light and Twilight Velvet and somehow used her shape-shifting magic to give them the looks of changelings. Twilight believed she was fighting changelings, but they were her parents." insurgency Celestia allowed the information to sink in for the other four ponies before she continued. "She connected the crystal bomb she set up beneath Canterlot to their life forces. When they died, Canterlot died with them." out of everything the main world ponies learned about this world in the past few hours, this had to be by far the most horrific.
"This... this is monstrous. Even by Chrysalis' standards." Cadence said. The others couldn't help but agree. Especially Applejack. Her whole life was all about her family. For somepony to do this to another pony's family... she couldn't imagine anything more evil.
"I think I can see why Twilight cracked now." Rainbow Dash added. "This can't be easy to deal with." though maybe "can't be possible" would have been a better way to put it. Insurgency Celestia decided it was time to move on.
"Let us move. We're almost there." she said, walking past the spikes. The others - after a brief moment of disgust upon passing the spikes that held the bodies - followed. "I'm sorry you had to see this, Applejack." Insurgency Celestia told the cowpony.
"Ya have nothin' to apologize for, sugarcube. Those Apples died on their hooves fightin' the good fight. Which is more that can be said about mah counterpart." she said bitterly. If anything, this made her even angrier with her actions. And determined to put an end to Twilight's rule in this world.
After walking for a couple of more minutes, they finally reached the ruined castle, but to their dismay, they saw that it was surrounded by a magical barrier.
"Please tell me you put this up to keep Twilight's forces away." Rainbow Dash said to Insurgency Celestia.
"I wish I could, but this was actually put up by Twilight herself to keep me away from what we're here for." she replied. Even now, she had to give her former student credit for ingenuity. She couldn't possibly obtain what she had hidden inside, so she tried to keep her from getting it. Not that she wasn't prepared for it.
"So how are we getting past that?" Shining Armor asked.
"I may have been severely depowered, but with Cadence's help, I could still create a hole in the barrier that you three could get through." she told him, before pulling out a crystal and giving it to the unicorn stallion. "Once you're inside, use your magic on this crystal. It contains a spell that will neutralize the barrier." Shining nodded and took the crystal. The group walked up to the barrier and Insurgency Celestia signaled to Cadence to get into position and the two alicorns blasted the barrier, which resisted for a while, but eventually, a hole was opened in it and the three other ponies walked through it. After they were inside, Insurgency Celestia stopped the spell and the hole was closed.
"Stay on your guard!" she warned from outside. "I would be surprised if this was the only obstacle Twilight set up." the three ponies inside nodded and headed towards the ruined castle.
They were cautiously making their way towards the entrance, but they couldn't see anything they should look out for.
"Ahm tellin' ya, it's clear!" Applejack told them. "We should just go in an' use that crystal alre..." she was interrupted by a large treetrunk that crashed into her and knocked her out.
"AJ!" Rainbow screamed.
"What in Faust's name was..." Shining looked into the direction where the trunk came from just in time to avoid another one that was headed his way. He and Rainbow quickly ran up to see what was happening and were greeted by a surprising sight. At the entrance of the castle was none other than Regime Big Macintosh, kicking torn out tree trunks into their direction.
"Big Mac?" Rainbow asked in shock. "I thought the Apples were on Celestia's side!"
"Twilight widened his perspective." came another voice from behind the massive stallion. A much smaller and younger female Pegasus jumped on Regime Big Mac's back. Shining and Rainbow narrowed their eyes upon recognizing her.
"Cozy Glow." Shining Armor growled. The grey pegasus smiled viciously.
"Crush, Big Mac!" she yelled and the stallion rushed towards the two main world ponies. Rainbow flew up and quickly flew at Regime Cozy Glow, grabbing her and carrying her off into the air.
Meanwhile, Shining was busy with the brainwashed Stallion. Needles to say, he was much stronger than him, so he had to keep his distance and fire blasts at Regime Big Mac. Naturally, due to the Earth Pony's massive strength, most of his spells just bounced off of him, so Shining was forced to change tactics. As he backed away, he stepped on something and upon turning around, he saw it was one of the tree trunks Regime Mac thrown at him. He picked it up with his magic.
"Alright, big guy, let's how you can handle this!" He then swung the trunk at his opponent and it did manage to hit him with such an impact that it broke. Shining Armor put on a triumphant smirk as he heard the crash, but his sense of triumph was short loved as he looked and saw that Regime Big Mac merely stumbled back without even collapsing. And now he looked really pissed off.
"Oh, horseapples."
Regime Big Mac quickly ran up to Shining and pulled him into wrapped his forehooves around him with crushing strength. Shining struggled to get free but Regime Big Mac was just too strong. Shining started looking around for anything that might help and saw the tree trunks Regime Mac has been bucking towards them lying on the top of the hill put on each other.
He fired a blast at them and they started rolling down the hill. Regime Big Mac didn't notice any of it until they were rolling under his hooves and made him lose his balance as well as his grip on Shining Armor. The unicorn teleported out of the way and Regime Big Mac rolled down the hill in the tree trunks until they crashed into one of still standing trees at the bottom.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." Shining said before running off to help Rainbow Dash. Said Pegasus was busy chasing Regime Cozy Glow who managed to break free of her grip. Of course, being the fastest flyer in Equestria, she would have easily caught her, but everytime she tried to grab her, she did a turn so suddenly that it threw Rainbow off course and she needed a few moments to gather herself and locate the younger Pegasus again.
"Over here, Rainbow Crash!" Regime Cozy called, waving at her from afar. Rainbow glared.
"You did not just call me that!" she snarled, flying at her at full speed, but right before she caught her, Regime Cozy flew up and Rainbow ended up crashing into a tree she did not see was there in the darkness. She slowly slid down to the ground on the tree trunk. Regime Cozy laughed.
"If your brain worked as fast as your wings, you would be smarter than Twilight!" she mocked, flying back to the ground. "By now, Big Mac is no doubt finished with that moronic unicorn." she said as she turned away, but was shocked when she walked starlight into Shining Armor himself.
"Think again, you brat." he said, grabbing Regime Cozy Glow with a telekinetic grasp. "If you are anything like my world's Cozy Glow, then you have long since been needing an overdue spanking!" Regime Cozy's eyes widened as Shining turned her around in the air and raised his forehoof before it made a sharp connection with her backside. That continued for a minute, accompanied by the pained cries of the young Pegasus, then Shining lowered her to the ground and casted a knockout spell on her.
After he was done, he noticed Rainbow Dash has recovered and come to. "Go and help Applejack, I'll disperse the barrier." Rainbow nodded and walked off. Shining took out the crystal Celestia gave her and activated it with her magic. The crystal started vibrating and a white beam shot out of it towards the sky, wiping away the barrier as it made contact with it.
Once the task was done, Shining went to join the others. Rainbow Dash pulled Applejack out from the tree trunk that hit her and managed to shake her awake by the time the alicorns and Shining arrived.
"Anypony got the number o' that cart?" Applejack asked, still groggy.
"That was a tree trunk, AJ." Rainbow Dash told her. "I think it's safe to say you're only alive thanks to the alicorn pill."
"A tree trunk?" Insurgency Celestia asked. "What exactly happened here?"
"We had a run in with Cozy Glow and Big Macintosh." Shining answered.
"Big Mac is here?!" Applejack asked in shock, turning to the alicorn. "Ah thought you said the Apples were with you! Besides mah counterpart."
"Big Macintosh has been captured a few months ago during an operation to steal a supply of alicorn pills from the Regime." Insurgency Celestia answered. "If he was coerced, that means Twilight has perfected her mind control spell. We have to hurry and take her down as quickly as possible. If she manage to brainwash all of her political prisoners into supporting her, the Insurgency is truly done for!" she concluded.
"Couldn't ya undo the spell and free him?" Applejack pleaded. But Insurgency Celestia's sad expression answered her.
"If I was at full strength, I could do it without a problem, but in my depowered state, it is beyond my power at the moment. I'm sorry." Applejack hung her head in disappointment. "But now we must move and get the device. It won't be long before Twilight knows we're here." Insurgency Celestia made her way inside the ruins, but the four main world ponies shared another concerned look before following her. None of them wanted to admit it, but they were all scared of what else this world could throw at them.
Back in Canterlot, Insurgency Sombra was in his kitchen making a drink for himself after his exhausting conversation with Insurgency Sunset Shimmer. The yellow unicorn finally agreed to help the insurgents, but she made it clear that alignment will only last until she has gotten revenge on the Regime. And Insurgency Sombra really could have used a drink after the discussion with the troublesome mare.
Speaking of troublesome mares...
"Your Highness!" Insurgency Sombra jumped in surprise when he saw Regime Twilight standing in front of him. "I beg your pardon, I did not hear you enter." Regime Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Why so jumpy, Sombra? Do you have a bad conscience?" she asked in suspicion? Insurgency Sombra tried to keep his cool as much as he could.
"Of course not, your highness! I merely did not expect you to honor me with a visit. I was just making a drink for myself. Would you fancy one as well? I could even make one of those Daisy Sandwiches you love so much." he offered. Regime Twilight's cold expression didn't soften. She wasn't buying it for a second.
"Thank you, but I won't be staying for long. This is not a friendly visit. I'm here on business."
"Of course you are." Regime Twilight ignored that remark. She summoned a bunch of vials and gave them to Insurgency Sombra.
"These are samples of blood, tissue and other kinds from the alternate Celestia I'm holding in Ponyville. I would like you to use them to find a way to locate where our Celestia is hiding. I would do it myself, but my duties with leading the Regime barely leave me any time for scientific research. But I believe you are more than capable to handle this task."
Insurgency Sombra immediately realized what Regime Twilight was up to. Of course she could do it herself. Hay, she probably already did. But Insurgency Sombra knew Regime Twilight didn't trust him. This wasnt about finding their Celestia. It was about rooting out a traitor. Regime Twilight was expecting him to deliver fake results. That would be more enough reason to execute him. She knew Insurgency Sombra was going to make a mistake sooner or later. And even he was starting to realize this. He had no idea how much longer he can keep up this charade.
"I will see what I can do. But it will probably take some time before I have anything conclusive." he responded finally. Regime Twilight didn't seem particularly disappointed.
"You will figure something out, Sombra." she replied before turning away to leave. "After all, you always find your way out of everything." she added ominously. She was halfway to the door, before she suddenly stopped.
"Is something wrong, Your Highness?" Regime Twilight stood there for a moment before answering.
"These... doppelgängers... I heard there was a Shining Armor among them." she started softly. "Do you think there's a Twilight where they came from? One who... never lost her family?" Insurgency Sombra quickly realized what twisted thing just emerged in the Empress' mind and he could only hope he would be able to talk her out of it. Regardless, what he said next was the most sincere thing he said to Regime Twilight in the past five years.
"There is only one Twilight. And she only had one family." he said. Regime Twilight thought about this for a few moments before she finally left. Insurgency Sombra stared at the closed door she walked out on, deep in thoughts. He felt like he was going to have to make that mistake sooner rather than later.
'My love, please forgive me for what I'm about to do.'
Insurgency Celestia and the main world ponies entered the throne room of the ruined castle. As they looked around, they felt more and more doubtful about their mission.
"Ah remember that me an' the girls explored these ruins quite thoroughly in our world." Applejack stated. "Ya sure Twilight didn' find this device o' yours?"
"I developed a spell that requires five very specific ponies to unlock the vault that contains it." Insurgency Celestia answered. "She couldn't have possibly found what we're here for."
"Twilight prides herself in being the master of spells." Shining Armor replied. "What kind of spell we're talking about exactly?" Insurgency Celestia sighed. This was a story she never told anypony, but since she finally was about to put this plan in motion, she might as well tell them.
"After Sunset Shimmer's fall from grace, I had to be prepared if another of my students would go astray. When Twilight became a princess, I knew there was a possibility that power might corrupt her one day. So I designed this spell to remove Twilight's alicorn powers in case we ever needed it."
"Why did you wait until Twilight depowered you before using using the spell?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I intended this spell to be an absolute last resort. And then Twilight depowered me, so now I need this device as well. Not to mention that robbing Twilight, the biggest defender of Equestria of her alicorn abilities was not a call I could make alone. So I protected this vault with a safety barrier that can only be shut down by the essence of Twilight's closest allies. Her mentor, her brother, her sister-in-law, and her two closest friends."
"Our counterparts from this world." Cadence realized. "So that's why you needed to bring us over." Insurgency Celestia nodded.
"But with my Shining Armor dead and the others backing up Twilight's insanity, I needed you four. Your matching essences to be precise."
"But wait!" Shining Armor interrupted. "You said the insurgents hid this device inside the vault after my counterpart died five years ago. So how could they open it?"
"I need your essence to shut down the barrier and remove what's inside the vault." Insurgency Celestia explained. "I provided them with enough magical energy to open the vault and place the device inside, but they still would have needed you to get it out." Shining nodded. That actually made sense.
They all understood now. And they all knew what they had to do. They turned to the white alicorn with determined looks on their faces.
"We're ready." Shining Armor declared. Insurgency Celestia turned away from them and used her magic to summon five small stone formations out of the floor. They were only as tall as her legs. All of them were in different colors.
"Put your hooves on them." Insurgency Celestia instructed, while placing her hoof on the top of the white stone. The main world ponies did as they were told. Applejack took the orange, Rainbow Dash took the blue, Cadence took the pink and Shining took the...
"Yellow?" he asked in confusion. Insurgency Celestia shrugged.
"White was already taken, so I went with the color of the armor of my royal guard for yours."
"Wouldn't yellow make more sense to you? I mean... You're the alicorn of the sun?" Shining pointed out. The others were growing annoyed by this.
"Shiny, just roll with it." Cadence admonished. Shining sighed and placed his hoof on the stone. After a few seconds the center of the room in the middle of the circle of stones began glowing with bright white light and the floor opened. Insurgency Celestia went and took out a large saddlebag from the hole. She opened it to see the scroll that contained the spell, the crystal that contained the necessary magical energy and the device they needed to bult into Sombra's armor that will channel it into her body inside it. They had what they came for.
"This is it." she told the others as she placed the saddlebag on her back. "Let's go."
"You're not going anywhere, except for the nearest Regime prison." the five ponies jumped in surprise to see that the exit was blocked by Regime Rainbow Dash and Regime Blueblood. They also managed to wake up Regime Cozy Glow and Regime Big Mac. "Calling over your doppelgänger was a mistake, Celestia. Twilight managed to track you down to the Everfree Forest by studying her. And when we heard about the barrier over these ruins going down, it didn't take long to connect the dots. Now, what do you say we skip the part where we beat the tar out of you and you just surrender?" Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes.
"Really, Rainbow Dash, I've been fighting against your Regime for five years and sacrificed too much. Do you honestly think I will stop now?" Regime Dash grinned.
"I was hoping you'd say that." she then turned to the other Regime ponies. "I'll take the Shining Armor lookalike, the rest are yours. For some reason, Twilight wants him alive. Try to take the others alive too, but if you can't, it doesn't matter." and with that, she flew at the unicorn stallion and tackled him to the ground. He teleported out from under her and reappeared above her, dropping down at her, but she noticed him and time and flew out from under him. Shining tried to blast her with a spell, but she was too fast. She got behind him and grabbed him from behind, but after some struggling, he managed to buck her away. He then turned to her as she tried to recover from the kick.
"Why does your Twilight want me?" Regime Rainbow shrugged.
"Beats me. Our Shining Armor was always a useless moron. But it doesn't really matter. Twilight wants you alive. And what she wants, she gets." she darted at Shining again and tried to strike him with her hooves, but he countered with her hooves, pushing back. They were locked in this struggle for a few moments, then Shining started charging up his horn. Regime Rainbow was still trying to push him away and she didn't notice what he was about to do. Shining then released a powerful blast that knocked Regime Rainbow back against a wall, knocking her out.
"And our Rainbow Dash is faster. She would have seen this coming from a mile away." he then ran off to join the others. The battle was going in the favor of the insurgents. Regime Big Mac and Regime Cozy were already knocked out again, they couldn't last long with their injuries from the previous fight. The only one left standing was Regime Blueblood who now found himself surrounded by five ponies.
"Yer outnumbered 5 to 1, Blueblood." Applejack said. "It's over." Regime Blueblood just scoffed.
"Oh, please. Do you think two depowered alicorns, a tomboy Pegasus, a farmer and a guard is enough to stand against somepony of my status?" the other ponies didn't take his threat seriously at all, but Shining Armor suddenly noticed that the prince was channeling a huge amount of magic into his horn.
"Everypony look out! He's..." but his warning came late. Regime Blueblood released a huge blast that spread over across the whole throne room and incapacitated the insurgents, with the exception of Shining, who managed to summon a shield spell just in time. This was not good. Apparently, this Blueblood could actually back up his boasting.
"1 on 1 is much better odds, wouldn't you agree?" Regime Blueblood asked mockingly. Shining Armor glared at him.
"Maybe, if that 1 against you wasn't me. Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Quality over quantity'? When I was still living in Canterlot, I always wanted to break in your smug face. I can't believe I finally get the chance."
The duel of the two unicorn stallions was short, but fierce. This Blueblood was much stronger than the one from Shining's world. And he didn't mind getting his hooves dirty either. He actually managed to surprise Shining at one point by throwing a punch at him when he got close enough. And no matter how hard he was trying, he couldn't overpower his magic. Shining was quickly forced into defense.
'Just when I thought this world is out of surprises, it pulls something else out of it's sleeves. Now we have Blueblood who actually practices magic that's befitting his Prince status and far above mine.' Shining panicked, but only in his thoughts. There was no way he'll give the stick up prince the satisfaction of seeing it on his face.
"Why don't you save yourself from further embarrassment and just give up? I already got your friends. What hope have you on your own?" Regime Blueblood mocked while advancing on Shining . Shining gritted his teeth. He waited until Regime Blueblood reached him.
"I told you..." he started just as Regime Blueblood was face to face with him. "...quality over quantity!" Shining yelled as he spun around and bucked Regime Blueblood in the face with all his might. This time, it was the prince who was caught off guard by the physical attack and after Shining's backhooves made contact with his head, he was out cold.
"Good night, sweet prick." Shining sneered before he went to check on the others. All of them came to by the time their fight was over. Shining helped up Cadence while Insurgency Celestia took off her saddlebag and checked on the device. Her fears have been confirmed. It took heavy damage from Blueblood's spell. Her hooves started shaking in anger and in a rather unprincesslike moment, she punched the floor in anger.
"FAUST DAMN IT TO TARTARUS!" she hollered. The main world ponies jumped in fright and ran to see what was the problem. When they saw the damaged thing, they all knew what riled up Insurgency Celestia so much.
"Can it be fixed?" Applejack asked.
"Thankfully, the scroll describing my spell and the crystal containing the magical energy are intact, but the device that was supposed to channel the energy it needs to be unleashed into me is beyond repair." Insurgency Celestia stated sadly. "Even with Sombra's connections within the Regime, we don't have time to get new parts to repair it now that Twilight has means of tracking us down." the main world ponies looked at each other. They couldn't accept that all their work was for nothing.
"We should get some more help then." Shining suggested. Cadence nodded.
"If we do not have the power to fix the device and unleash this spell. Then we need to get somepony who has the knowledge how to." she added. Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes in contemplation. She wasn't fond of the idea of pulling another pony over from their world. She had already put them in enough danger as it is. But if she didn't do this, then they have already lost and the past five years of fighting and sacrifices have been for nothing.
Eventually, she begrudgingly realized that they were right. They're going to need somepony with enough knowledge about alicorn magic to help with fixing the device. And she already knew just who that pony could be.
Author's Note
So here you have Shining Armor's chapter. Peppered with a little Sombra drama and the setup of Starlight's arrival into the Unfriendship universe.
Things are about to heat up, so make sure you stay tuned! See ya next time! 😉
Chapter 6: Starlight Glimmer
In the Canterlot Castle from the main world, Twilight just finished setting up the Crystal Mirror according to the calculations of Trixie and Starlight. Said unicorns just entered the room as she added the final touch.
"Ready?" Twilight asked them.
"As we'll ever be." Starlight replied half-heartedly. It was clear to Twilight that she didn't much faith in this idea. Mostly because they were just going with the untested idea of Trixie. She probably wouldn't have agreed to it if they had more time to come up with something fullproof. But sadly, they didn't.
"Alright. The mirror is ready. I've managed to lock in on their closest location. Focus on the mirror with your strongest telekinetic spells and we'll be able to pull them back into our world." Twilight instructed.
"In theory." Starlight added. Trixie frowned at her.
"You're just mad that Trixie came up with this idea and not you." she scoffed.
"Girls, settle down!" Twilight admonished. "It's not important who came up with the solution! All that's important is to get our friends back!" Starlight reluctantly gave in.
The three unicorns stood next to each other in front of the mirror and charged up their horns before releasing the necessary spell at the mirror. For a few moments, nothing happened.
"Why isn't it working?" Trixie complained.
"Try harder!" Twilight told them. They increased the strength of their spells, but once again, they couldn't make anything happen. But suddenly, the mirror started lighting up.
"Is it working?" Trixie asked hopefully. Twilight wasn't sure, but Starlight realized what was happening.
"Break the spell! BREAK IT!" she yelled. The unicorns did as she told. They all ended the spell, but for some reason, the connection between the mirror and Starlight remained. Twilight and Trixie stared in confusion.
"What's happening?" Twilight asked. Starlight wasn't sure, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as she suddenly felt a pull on herself. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. The mirror was pulling her towards it!
"Oh, horseapples!" she yelled, struggling to resist the mirror's pull, but it was too strong. Twilight and Trixie also started panicking.
"Starlight, break the spell!" she screamed at her student. Starlight tried to break the connection, but she couldn't. It was as if something stronger from the other side was pulling her in.
"I can't!" she yelled as the mirror's pull strengthened and before she knew it, the mirror completely sucked her in and she found herself on the other side. Once she came to and realized what had happened, she was understandably quite frightened, mixed with a little anger.
"Trixie, when I get back, I'm going to kill you!"
She looked around to see what kind of place she ended up in. She saw that she was in a big room with a round table and several chairs in the middle. On the wall, there was a big map of Equestria that looked like it was used for the planning of military operations. And all around the room were laying all kinds of magical instruments and weapons.
"Well, that's just great! An alternate version of Equestria wasn't enough, it just had to be a war zone." she grumbled in annoyance. She then heard voices from behind one of the doors, which seemed to be getting closer. Starlight panicked and ran to hide behind a wall. As the voices got closer and closer, she eventually realized that she knew whom they belonged to.
"I'm not sure that letting the changelings run these operations is the best idea." said Insurgency Sunset Shimmer as she entered the room. There was another figure next to him that Starlight recognized as Sombra.
"They may not be the as reliable as Regime troops, but their guerilla tactics are efficient and the mayhem they create is useful." Insurgency Sunset didn't seem too reassured by that response.
"We're gonna need more than guerilla tactics and a few changeling vandals if we want to take down Twilight."
That one line made Starlight forget all about her confusion about how Sunset could be here with Sombra when she was supposed to be sitting in the dungeons of Canterlot Castle and her distress about her current situation. She narrowed her eyes at the two ponies in the middle of the room.
"That's all I needed to hear." she whispered. She charged up her horn and ran out of her hiding spot, charging at them. Fortunately, Insurgency Sunset noticed it from the corner of her eye and got in front of Insurgency Sombra, activating a shield spell before Starlight's attack could hit him. Insurgency Sombra turned around in shock to see the blue unicorn that came out of nowhere.
"What in the name of..."
"You said this place was secure!" Insurgency Sunset complained. Insurgency Sombra rolled his eyes.
"Just keep her busy!" he replied before running out of the room. Starlight was about to follow him, whatever he was up to, it couldn't possibly be good, but she was stopped when she was stopped by a blast from Insurgency Sunset that struck the floor in front of her, making Starlight jump back. The yellow unicron menacingly advanced on Starlight.
"I'm gonna enjoy this! Payback time." Starlight had no idea what she was talking about, but she understood enough to know that Insurgency Sunset attacked with killer intent. As she bolted around the room, dodging blasts , she couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Sunset Shimmer was not usually this bloodthirsty. But for the moment, she merely thought it to be a side effect of hanging around with Sombra.
Starlight was so busy with this train of thoughts, that she didn't notice that Sunset had cornered her. All she could do was stand in the corner and wait for her oppenent's next attack. Insurgency Sunset smirked. She started gathering energy in her horn and released a huge blast at the other unicorn. Insurgency Sunset waited until the dust settled, expecting to see the scorched remains of Starlight, but she was in for a surprise when she saw her standing there, completely unscathed.
"What?! How are you still standing?" she asked with wide eyes.
"You know the good thing about holographic projections?" Insurgency Sunset heard from behind her. She tried to turn around, but before she could, Starlight knocked her out with a spell. "They're invulmerable to physical attacks." Starlight said smugly to the downed unicorn. "I wish Twilight could see this." she giggled to herself giddily.
"Nice trick." Starlight heard from behind herself. She turned around to see Insurgency Sombra in full battle armor. "Too bad it won't work twice. Like my new armor? It's not only defensive, but enhances the effects of my magic." Starlight narrowed her eyes.
"It's not the magic that counts, Sombra. It's the pony who wields it." Insurgency Sombra rolled his eyes.
"Did you read that in a fortune cookie?" Starlight ignored him and just blasted the supposed crystal tyrant, but it turned out his claim was true. Her blast did little to affect him.
"My turn." he blasted the blue unicorn with a spell of his own, sending her through the doors at the back of the room into the next room. Starlight slowly got back on her hooves.
"Ugh." she groaned. "Son of a breeding mare! That really hurt."
"Get used to it, Regimer!" Insurgency Sombra snarled as he also entered the room. "The pain is only starting!" Starlight raised an eyebrow. Regimer? What did he mean by that? But she didn't have time to dwell on that as Insurgency Sombra fired another spell at her. Starlight successfully dodged and she bumped into something that sent a slight shock through her body. She turned around to see a large, round, spinning generator. A smirk grew on her face an idea formed in her head.
She waited until the appraoching Insurgency Sombra was close enough and the she bucked her backhooves into the generator and then she fired a lightning spell at him. It didn't hurt him, but then he realized that he was being drawn towards the generator. His eyes widened as he realized what's about to happen.
"Oh, horseaAAAAAAAAAGH..." he screamed as his body was slammed into the generator. Starlight teleported out of the way just in time and smirked at him as the generator short circuited and shut itself down. Insurgency Sombra collapsed on the ground and Starlight shot a triumphant smirk at him.
"When magic lets you down, a little science will do the trick." she quipped.
"At ease, Starlight!" she heard another voice from behind her. She turned around to see Insurgency Celestia, surrounded by the main world ponies.
"Celestia?" Starlight asked dumbfounded. "What are you doing here? And why is your eye bandaged." She was even more surprised when she saw Cadence and Rainbow Dash going to help Insurgency Sombra up. "And why are you two helping Sombra up?" Insurgency Celestia ignored her at first and she beckoned a few changelings into the room with a quick instruction to fix the generator. "And why are changelings taking orders from you?" The alicorn finally decided to answer the preplexed Starlight.
"Please, follow me to the briefing room, Starlight. I shall explain everything." Starlight was hesitant at first, but then she decided to play along. If nothing else, she might hear a pretty interesting story.
Regime Twilight Sparkle, the Empress of the Equestrian Magical Regime was not pleased when she entered the ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters. She sent Regime a Rainbow Dash, her second in command and Regime Prince Blueblood, who has proved himself a powerful enforcer on several occasions to capture Insurgency Celestia when she found out she was making a move in that place. She believed that her second in command and the strongest unicorn serving in the Regime would be more than enough to handle this task. But when she entered the ruins, she was forced to realize that she was wrong.
She was greeted by the battered and bruised bodies of her agents lying on the floor unconscious and she cast a spell to wake them all up. The four ponies groaned in pain as they came to and started bickering amongst themselves, trying to shift the blame on each other and figure out who would be the one to break the news of their failure to the Empress.
Regime Twilight suddenly cleared her throat, which caused the four ponies on the floor to widen their eyes and immediately jump on their hooves to line up before the empress. As they expected, she wasn't happy.
"Blueblood, Macintosh, Cozy Glow, I will deal with your failure later. For now, return to our base in Canterlot. Rainbow Dash, follow me." the two stallions and the Pegasus filly immediately left the building and Regime Twilight headed deeper inside the room with Regime Rainbow Dash behind her. They were standing in front of the vault that Insurgency Celestia and the doppelgängers opened a few hours ago.
"Celestia was never one to take risks." Regime Twilight stated, staring at the empty vault. "She wouldn't have come back here unless she would have gained a huge advantage out of it." Regime Rainbow Dash agreed.
"Well, now you have a way to track them down, don't you? With the samples from the other Celestia! We could locate where the Insurgency is hiding and finally snuff them out before she could try anything!" But Regime Twilight merely shook her head.
"We would no doubt find ourselves facing heavy defenses and even if we could get through them, she could still get away and set up base elsewhere. No matter how many times we tracked them down, this would happen everytime and the only thing we'd achieve is growing the list of our casualties." she explained. "No, I'm not going to give her the home team advantage."Regime Rainbow Dash didn't understand.
"Well, then... What's your plan?" she asked in confusion. Regime Twilight slowly turned to look at the Pegasus with a sharp grin.
"We are going to lure them out into the open."
Back at the Insurgency's HQ, Starlight spent the previous few hours studying Insurgency Celestia's anti-alicorn device. After she was filled in on the events that took place in this world and the struggle against the Regime, she immediately agreed to help. She was sitting at the table in the middle of the war room, surrounded by her friends from the main world as well as Insurgency Sombra and Insurgency Sunset. It was a little awkward, considering she just bucked their flanks a few hours ago, but they didn't seem to hold it against her.
After a thorough examination of the broken device and Insurgency Sombra's blueprints, she figured she finally managed to crack how to fix it.
"Okay, I think I finally got it!" Starlight announced happily. "If you guys could send me back to my world, I could fix this thing up easily." the others were happy to hear this.
"Maybe we could even bring back reinforcements!" Rainbow Dash suggested. "With all of our friends here, we could take out the Regime in no time!" the others seemed to agree with her, but they were soon forced to realize that a dark shadow has been cast on their plan.
"I'm afraid there's no time for that." Insurgency Celestia said as she entered the room, holding a newspaper in her hoof. "One of my spies in Canterlot just brought me this. I believe you should see it as well." she gave the newspaper to Cadence, who opened it for everypony in the room to see. It read:
BREAKING! CELESTIA CAPTURED AND SENTECED TO DEATH!
The former Princess of Equestria and current leader of the Insurgency, Celestia has been captured by Regime forces and Empress Twilight has swiftly sentenced her to be executed at Friday, 10 AM at the courtyard of Canterlot Castle. Empress Twilight had the following thing to say on the matter:
"I am greatly conflicted at the moment. Celestia has been my mentor and closest friend since I can remember, but I simply cannot ignore the destructive actions of madness she has been forced into by her inability to deal with the tragic events of Canterlot five years ago. Therefore, it was with a heavy heart when I signed her death warrant, but for the sake of my little ponies, I have to cast my feelings aside and sentence my former mentor and princess to death for her crimes against Equestria. May Faust have mercy on her soul."
Insurgency Celestia waited until everypony in the room managed to progress what they were reading, which she assumed from the horrified expressions on all of their faces, before speaking.
"Getting help will have to wait. Rescuing your Celestia has just become our primary objective." Applejack was the first one who managed to overcome her horror.
"Well, then what are we waitin' for? Let's head down to Canterlot and rescue her!" she shouted, slamming the table with her hooves in determination. But the others saw things a bit more realistically.
"AJ, we can't just rush in to the Regime's base to launch a prison break!" Rainbow Dash told her.
"Well, why not?!" the farm pony asked sharply. Cadence went over to Applejack and wrapped a wing around her in an attempt to calm her.
"Applejack, don't you see? This is a trap. Going up to Canterlot to try and break Celestia out is exactly what Twilight wants us to do. No doubt the entire Regime army will be waiting for us ready to arrest all of us. Or worse."
"Cadence is right." Insurgency Celestia nodded. "We're going to need a plan if we are to save her." Applejack seemed to accept her friends' reasoning, but she still wasn't happy. She hated feeling so powerless.
"Well then, Ah reckon you have one." she said to the Insurgency's leader, who nodded again in response.
"Of course, I do." she then used her magic to summon a map of Ponyville. "Your Celestia is not even in Canterlot right now. She is still being held in Ponyville. She will be taken to the capital on the day of the execution by train."
"So, we will be hittin' the Regime prison in Ponyville?" Applejack asked. Insurgency Celestia shook her head.
"No. Even that sight is too heavily guarded. Our best chance is to extract Celestia between the two cities." Shining Armor realized where she was going with this and didn't really like the idea.
"Wait a second. Are we going to extract her from the train?" he asked a little nervously.
"Yes. It is risky, but it is out best chance. It is a move Twilight is unlikely to anticipate." Insurgency Celestia replied. "Shining Armor, I trust I can count on your assistance on this mission." the addressed stallion slowly nodded.
"But how are we going to get her off the train? In your depowered state, you won't be able to teleport us away and my teleport spell is adequate at best. I definitely won't be able to teleport the two of you away." Shining pointed out.
"I will see to that." Insurgency Sombra offered. "Once the train is close enough to the city, I will be able to get you out of there and back to HQ." Starlight looked at him in disbelief.
"Sombra is going to help in rescuing Celestia. I just heard that with my own ears and I can still hardly believe it." Insurgency Sombra put on a sad expression.
"Am I really that bad in your world?" he asked.
"No. You're not." Cadence answered to Insurgency Sombra's relief, but that relief was short-lived as the pink alicorn continued. "You're worse."
"Much, much worse." Rainbow Dash added, causing Insurgency Sombra to look down in dejection.
"So what about the rest of us?" Applejack asked.
"You will be part of a diversion I have planned for the Regime. Leading the Insurgent forces, you will attack the sight of the execution, but before the time of the execution. I'll need you to keep the Regime's forces occupied while we get Celestia off the train." the other ponies looked at each other with a sense of anticipation. It was clear that they were all looking forward to finally take a strike at the Regime.
"That still presents a problem." Starlight added. "We don't know which train she will be on or when does it leave Ponyville." fortunately, Insurgency Celestia also knew the solution to that.
"That information can be obtained from the royal archives in Canterlot Castle." she stated on a perfectly calm tone. Something that the other ponies in the room didn't share.
"The main base of the Regime?!" Shining Armor exclaimed. "And just how do you expect us to get it from there?" Insurgency Celestia looked at Starlight.
"With her help. Starlight, since your counterpart serves with the Regime and they are unaware of your arrival, you are the perfect candidate for this task." ecerypony looked at the unicorn in question, expecting some reluctance, but to their surprise, she instantly agreed.
"You can count on me! I told you I'm ready to help in any way I can. This may not be my world, but Twilight taught me to always do the right thing, no matter what. Besides, I'm very disappointed with the actions of my counterpart, so I'm eager to give her a piece of my mind." she said, slamming her hooves together.
"There will be none of that." Insurgency Celestia told her strictly. "This is an undercover, extraction mission. Infiltrate, obtain the intel, leave undetected. Am I understood?" Starlight saluted.
"Yes, ma'am."
"That said, if you do stumble upon your counterpart, that could make things awkward to say the least." Insurgency Sunset Shimmer added, making everyone turn to her in surprise as she was very quiet up to that point. "Maybe I should come with you. As backup." Starlight didn't like the idea.
"Thanks, but I'll be fine. I don't need help from you." she told her with disdain in her voice, which Insurgency Sunset immediately caught.
"Look. " she started with an irritated sigh. "Whatever history we share with our counterparts, you and I have none." Starlight was about to argue, but Insurgency Celestia spoke first.
"I actually find this a solid suggestion as well." Starlight looked at her in shock.
"You want me to work with Sunset Shimmer?" she asked in bewilderment.
"Strange bedfellows, Starlight." Shining Armor added. "If your cover is blown, you'll need somepony to watch your back. Besides, if Celestia can stomach working with changelings, surely you can handle her." Starlight finally gave in. She turned to the yellow unicorn.
"You will do as I say, whenever I say, got it?" Insurgency Sunset wasn't amused.
"Well this is gonna be an interesting partnership."
The two unicorns arrived in Canterlot through a network of spy tunnels created by the changelings. They mostly lead into sewers, a fact neither ponies were too thrilled about.
"Sewers. These tunnels just had to lead into sewers." Starlight complained, shaking sewage off of herself. "I get the feeling the changelings just wanted to mess with us."
"I hate to admit it, but I actually agree." Insurgency Sunset said, before pulling out a map from her saddlebag. "Right, so the map says the next manhole should lead directly to the square in front of the castle entrance."
"Assuming your intel is correct." Starlight said cynically. Insurgency Sunset was getting annoyed. On their way here, Starlight couldn't stop badmouthing her, even though they were supposed to be working together.
"Would you lay off of me?" she snapped finally. "We're supposed to be a team here, remember? I know what your problem is, but let's get something straight! I'm not your Sunset!"
"Even if you didn't help Chrysalis blowing up Canterlot like my Sunset tried to with Sombra, you still did all the other things she did in my world!" Starlight responded. Insurgency Sunset narrowed her eyes. She decided to close this argument once and for all.
"And what about you, Starlight Glimmer? Did you try to rob an entire village of their cutie marks?" she asked harshly, making the other unicorn cast her eyes down in shame. It was not something she liked to remember. Her silence was all the answer she needed.
"Thought so. So don't act all high and mighty with me! You're not a saint either! And you know what else? You want to hold me accountable for everything your Sunset did? Well take a look at this!" Insurgency Sunset swiped her mane back with her hoof and revealed a large, black wound that was still open, showing burnt flesh. Starlight backed away in horror.
"A "gift" from my Starlight. She supposed that when Trixie electrocuted me, targeting an open wound would make it hurt more so that I would finally break and give in to the Regime. That's how low you're counterpart has fallen. So if I'm willing to swallow that, do me a favor; shut up about how evil Sunset Shimmer is and let's get this over with!" with that, she she put the map away and headed towards the nearest manhole.
After making sure the coast was clear, she turned back to Starlight who had already put on the replica of Regime Starlight's armor. They climbed out of the sewer and closed the manhole behind them.
"You head to the archives and get the info, I'll stay out here and make sure we have a clean route of extraction. If there's trouble, signal me." she instructed, giving her a comm crystal. Starlight nodded and headed inside.
It took here while to find the archives since this castle was not the same she was used to, but a rebuilt version, but she eventually did manage to locate it. She was about to enter when she heard a voice from behind her.
"Hiya, Starlight!" came the joyful voice of Regime Pinkie Pie as she bounced by, wearing a dark blue vest with the Regime symbol on it.
"Hey, Pinkie." Starlight greeted back without even looking at her. This caused the pink pony to stop in place and look back at her in confusion.
"Huh? Are you okay, Starly?" she asked, bouncing back to the unicorn and putting a hoof on her shoulder. Starlight had to restrain herself from groaning. She just wanted to get the information they needed and get this over with. She didn't really feel like chatting with the Regime counterparts of her friends from the main world.
"I'm fine. Nothing to worry about." Starlight tried to reassure her. Regime Pinkie's expression was unreadable for a few seconds, before it spread into a wide grin.
"You're still coming to that party I'm throwing at Sugarcube Corner tomorrow to celebrate our victory over Celestia, right?" Starlight was getting nervous. She didn't know how she should reply and she felt like Regime Pinkie was somehow reading her.
"Uh... Sorry, Pinkie. I won't be able to make it after all. Twilight has new orders for me for after the execution. Besides, I don't think the Cakes would appreciate..."
"UH-HA!" Regime Pinkie yelled, pointing a hoof at her. "I was getting suspicious when you greeted me so casually and when you called Twilight by her name instead of Empress, but this confirmed it! The Cakes were delivering an order to Canterlot when it was destroyed five years ago! You're one of those copyponies, aren't you?!" she yelled, before attempting grab Starlight with her forelegs. The unicorn teleported behind her and tried to subdue her, but Regime Pinkie bucked her off of herself. She may not have been as strong as Applejack, but she was still an earth pony.
Starlight staggered a bit from the kick and Regime Pinkie tried to take advantage of that and rushed at her. She tackled Starlight to the ground and tried to punch her, but Starlight came to and blasted Regime Pinkie off of her. The pink earth pony was blasted into the wall and tried to get up, but before she could, Starlight decided to repay the favor and bucked the party pony's head against the wall one more time, knocking her lights out.
"Sorry, Pinkie, this party's canceled." Starlight quipped, stuffing Regime Pinkie into a nearby closet with her magic. She was about to enter the archives again, but then she found herself surrounded by a magical barrier. She looked around to find the source of the spell and her eyes eventually landed on her Regime counterpart with a magical beam coming out of her horn. She took out a comm crystal.
"Rainbow Dash, this is Starlight Glimmer. I found a doppelgänger of myself at the entrance of the castle archives on the way to my meeting with Empress Twilight. Requesting backup, over." Little did Regime Starlight know, Insurgency Sombra had sabotaged the Regime's communication lines weeks ago. Regime Starlight was actually talking to the main world Rainbow Dash back at the Insurgency's HQ.
"Copy that, Starlight. Backup's on the way. Rainbow Dash out." she and Insurgency Sombra shared a small smirk.
Back at the castle, the main world Starlight teleported out of the bubble her counterpart trapped her in, greatly surprising the Regimer. "Neat energy bubble." Main Starlight said from behind Regime Starlight, making her jump and turn around. "Wanna check out mine?" she then used the exact same spell to trap her counterpart in an energy bubble of her own. She was counting on her teleporting out of it, so she decided prevent that by throwing the bubble all around the corridor. The bubble bounced around like a pinball, making Regime Starlight inside feel dizzy and sick. Starlight used her her magic to open the closet she stuffed Regime Pinkie into and threw the bubble inside, before dissipating it and Regime Starlight was unconsciously dropped on the top of Regime Pinkie. Starlight shut the closet and then took out her own comm crystal.
"Sunset, we have a problem. I ran into my counterpart. I managed to incapacitate her, but she said she has to go on a meeting with Twilight."
"So?" the yellow unicorn replied from the other end.
"If Starlight doesn't show up, Twilight might get suspicious and blow the alarm. I'll have to attend that meeting in my counterpart's place. Which means you'll have to get out Intel from the archives. The path is clear and I'll leave it open for you, but you'll have to hurry." Insurgency Sunset didn't like it, but she realized Starlight was right.
"Fine." she sighed. "I'm on my way." Starlight put away her comm crystal and was about to head off to find Regime Twilight, but then she stopped and looked back at the closet door. Maybe she could take her time a little before attending that meeting.
Author's Note
Took a little longer than it should have, but exam period will do that unfortunately.
Anyway, I wanted to wish you guys a Merry Christmas with this chapter, but I guess I'll have to settle for Happy Holidays now. And a Happy New Year. See ya in 2021! Hope you'll join me next year too. 😉
Chapter 7: Insurgency Sunset Shimmer
Insurgency Sunset was quietly making her way through the castle, making sure to look around every corner to make sure the coast was clear. Once she reached the archives, she became rather concerned when she saw that her partner was nowhere to be found. But that concern dissipated when she saw the closet door in front of the archives opening and Starlight walking out.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the meeting with Twilight?" Insurgency Sunset asked. Starlight just smiled at her.
"I figured I still have a little time. I was preparing a surprise for you. Take a look at my counterpart inside." Insurgency Sunset didn't understand what she was trying to say, but nevertheless did as she was told. She checked on the unconscious Regime Starlight and saw something remarkable on her shoulder. Her eyes widened when she examined it closer. It was a large open wound, with burnt flesh that didn't look like it would heal properly. Much like the one she received from this unicorn.
"You... You gave her the same scar she gave me?" Insurgency Sunset asked incredulously. Starlight looked down.
"I figured it would be a nice gesture. And also I wanted to make up for treating you so harshly earlier. You were right. Our histories with our counterparts don't matter. All that matters is that we need to work together now to rescue my Celestia and take down your Twilight." Insurgency Sunset didn't want to show it, but she was touched by this gesture.
"Well... It took you long enough to figure it out, but apology accepted. Now go already! Before Twilight gets suspicious." Starlight just nodded and headed off and Insurgency Sunset turned towards the door of the archives.
She entered, looking around to make sure the coast was clear. For her relief, the room appeared empty. Sighing in relief, she then started looking around the shelves to find the document that contained the information they needed. She hasn't been at it for more than a couple of minutes, before she heard hoofsteppes coming from outside. Cursing herself under her breaths for not sealing off the archive with a barrier, she quickly hid behind one of the shelves just in time before the door opened.
Two ponies entered whom Insurgency Sunset immediately recognized as Regime Rarity and Regime Fluttershy. Insurgency Sunset watched them walking towards one of the shelves on the opposite side of the room and tried to evasdrop on their conversation.
"I'm telling you, darling, this is absolute madness!" Regime Rarity complained. "I am simply appalled at how ruthless Twilight had become!" Regime Fluttershy was seemingly getting annoyed by her friend's ranting.
"I apologize for being so blunt Rarity, but this feels a little funny coming from somepony who was one of Twilight's biggest supporters when the Regime started." she replied. Regime Rarity looked down in shame. She remembered those days well. She was still recovering from the tragedy of Canterlot. They all were.
"I remember that, thank you very much! But those time were different. After Canterlot, I needed something to believe in again. We all did. And I have seen how the loss of little Scootaloo - Faust rest her soul - affected Rainbow Dash. I was horrified by the thought of me following her down the same path if the same thing happened to Sweetie Belle. I wanted to create a safer Equestria for her and everypony else. And that's how it went at first. Bad ponies and other creatures got what they deserved and the country was safe. But what we're doing now... I just think it's going too far." she finished, looking down remorsefully. Regime Fluttershy noticed her friend's distress and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Rarity. It's just an act. Twilight needs to keep up the appearance of a strong ruler to reassure the ponies of Equestria and deter anycreature from harming them. She's not gonna actually kill the other world's Celestia. She's just bait to capture our Celestia." Regime Rarity didn't seem reassured.
"And what's going to happen then? Have you forgotten what she has done to Braeburn?" she asked the yellow Pegasus. Regime Fluttershy's face fell. She remembered that day all too well. The image of Braeburn and the other Apples' rotting corpses on those pikes will haunt her for the rest of her life. But there was no time to dwell on that anymore.
"Let's just get our job done. We need that document with the number of the train that will deliver the other Celestia into Canterlot on Friday for the 'execution' and deliver it to Ponyville." Insurgency Sunset growled. The document she was here for was about to be taken right out of her hooves. She couldn't allow that, but it looked like she won't be able to get it without a fight.
She sneaked to the door and used a magical barrier to seal it shut. She then turned back to the two ponies who were looking through the archives. Sunset was still not in top condition after escaping from Regime captivity, so she doubted she could face both of them at the same time. She's gonna have to find a way to separate them from each other.
She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out one magical crystal she still had left. She then filled it with explosive magical energy, before sneaking up on her targets.
"Here it is!" Regime Rarity said, pulling out a rolled up paper from the shelf before rolling it up and placing it into her saddlebag.
"Thanks for sparing me the effort of having to look for it." Insurgency Sunset called out to them, making them jump in surprise and turn around. "Now I will be taking that off of your hooves if you don't mind."
The two Regime ponies didn't even bother with asking she got into the most heavily defended building in Equestria. Regime Fluttershy immediately flew at her to take her out, but then Insurgency Sunset pulled out the explosive crystal and threw it on the ground. As Regime Fluttershy flew over it, it exploded and sent the yellow Pegasus off course, making her crash into the wall.
"Fluttershy!" Regime Rarity yelled, rushing to help her friend, but Insurgency Sunset attacked her with a knockback spell. Regime Rarity flew against a shelf and all sorts of documents fell on top of her. Sunset tried to take advantage of this by slamming the shelves on top of Regime Rarity, but the white unicorn actually came to before she could do it and blasted everything around her away. She turned to Insurgency Sunset with a death glare that would have stopped Tirek himself in his tracks.
"Normally, fighting isn't my thing. I'm more into fashion. BUT FOR THIS, I WILL TEAR YOUR HEAD OFF AND FEED IT TO THE DIAMOND DOGS!!!" Regime Rarity screamed. Insurgency Sunset narrowed her eyes.
"Bring it on, Princess Prissy!" she snarled. Regime Rarity charged at her with reddened eyes. She was completely blinded by rage and rushed into the fight without of a tactic, so it wasn't particularly difficult for Insurgency Sunset to defend against her attacks. The fact that Regime Rarity's knowledge and skills when it came to combat magic were slim to none also tipped the odds in the yellow unicorn's favor.
After toying with her for a bit, Insurgency Sunset charged up her horn with another knockback spell, sending Regime Rarity crashing into the wall and rendering her unconscious. Her saddlebag containing the vital piece of intel fell on the floor, opened and the document rolled out of it. Insurgency Sunset went to retrieve it, but she was interrupted by a yellow blur dashing past her. She looked up to see Regime Fluttershy in the air with the document in her hoof and looking down at Insurgency Sunset with a look of scorn.
"I must be losing my touch. I figured that explosion would at least knock you out until I'm done here." the yellow unicorn scoffed.
"You won't hurt any more of my friends, Sunset." but Insurgency Sunset just laughed darkly.
"Oh, dear naive Fluttershy, that's where you are wrong. A lot more of your friends are about to be hurt. And you're going to be watching it from the front row." she snarled. Her dark words seemed to be getting to Regime Fluttershy, but she wasn't about to show it. In her desperation, she tried to give Insurgency Sunset the Stare. The yellow unicorn instantly realized this and decided to play along.
"Oh, no! Not the Stare! Please stop! I can't take it! This is far worse than anything Starlight and Trixie could have ever dished out. Take me away and lock me up! I'll change my ways, I promise!" Insurgency Sunset pleaded. Regime Fluttershy descended towards her to increase the intensity of the Stare.
"Really?" she asked once she was in hoof's reach with Insurgency Sunset. "Do you mean it?"
"No, I don't!" Insurgency Sunset yelled in her face before spinning around and bucking Regime Fluttershy's lights out. "You presume too much about this 'Stare' of yours. She then grabbed the document, placed it in her saddlebag and left the archives.
By the time Insurgency Sunset got back to the main entrance of the castle, she was relieved to see that Starlight was already there. It was time to take their leave. She sneaked up on Starlight and gently tapped her shoulder. The blue unicorn turned to her and let out an irritated huff.
"Finally! What took you so long? Did you get the intel?" Starlight snapped.
"Nice to see you too." Insurgency Sunset retorted sarcastically, holding up the saddlebag. "I ran into trouble, but managed to get out of it. Did the meeting go well? What did Twilight want with you?" Starlight smirked.
"I managed to fool her into believing I was her Starlight. Turns out, my counterpart will be in charge of the castle's defenses during the execution. She wanted to go through the layout of the troops." Insurgency Sunset's eyes widened.
"She gave you the entire defense layout for the day of the attack?!" Starlight nodded.
"She sure did. I'll tell you all about it on the way back. Now let's get out of here before someone sees us." the two unicorns exited the castle and headed towards the manhole they arrived from. Once they were back in the sewers, Starlight turned back to Insurgency Sunset. "What kind of trouble did you run into again?"
"My Fluttershy and Rarity were in the archives. They were about to take the document we were after so I had to take it from them." Starlight stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wait, what?! You fought them?!" she screamed at Insurgency Sunset. The yellow unicorn just stared.
"How else was I supposed to get the document?" Starlight slapped her forehead.
"You idiot! If they find out we were after this document, they'll know we're trying to hit the train that will be carrying Celestia!" she reprimanded. But Insurgency Sunset didn't seem too concerned.
"We came here for this document and we got it." she shrugged, smacking the saddlebag on her side.
"You just jeopardized the entire rescue operation!" Starlight screamed at her. Insurgency Sunset narrowed her eyes.
"I told Sombra and I'll tell you too: I'm not in this for Celestia, mine or yours. All I want is revenge!" Starlight was about to say something, but she was interrupted by the beeping of her comm crystal. She pulled it out and activated it and the unicorns were greeted by the image of Insurgency Sombra.
"Ladies, seeing as you accepted my call, I wager the mission was a success." Starlight and Insurgency Sunset shared a glance before the blue unicorn answered.
"Partly. We got the intel, but we've encountered hostiles. We've had no choice but to engage. The Regime will no doubt know we're after that train now and we can't tell how they'll react." she explained. Insurgency Sombra frowned, but didn't seem to distressed.
"I see. Not to worry. Twilight may not trust me, but I still have several other connections within the Regime. I will be able to smooth things over. We'll proceed as planned. But I have a new assignment for Sunset."
"I'm listening." Insurgency Sunset replied.
"I have found a way to fix Celestia's anti-alicorn armor. The Regime has recently delivered equipment to Sweet Apple Acres from which I could replace the damaged parts of the device. I need you to get it for me." It seemed simple enough to Insurgency Sunset, but Starlight grew suspicious.
"Wait, does Celestia know about this?" she asked. Insurgency Sombra looked down guiltily before answering.
"No. And I would prefer to keep it that way. She would insist on using it herself. And that I cannot allow. I will have to do it." Starlight and Insurgency Sunset shared another glance, this time in confusion.
"Why?" asked Starlight. Insurgency Sombra sighed.
"Twilight has become too powerful. Facing her is suicide. Even if the device works, it is very likely the user of the armor won't survive. Celestia is the face of the Insurgency. If she dies, it dies with her. But me... I've been feeling this coming for a long time. Twilight knows I work for Celestia. All she needs is proof so she can finally remove me from the picture. I've been able to cover my tracks until now, but I know I will make a mistake sooner or later. Perhaps I should make it sooner than later." the two mares listened keenly. Starlight was amazed how noble this Sombra was compared to the one in her world. Even Insurgency Sunset who had no interest in the Insurgency's war of liberation was amazed by this.
"I'll get it." Insurgency Sunset replied after a few moments of silence. Insurgency Sombra nodded at her in gratitude.
"Thank you, Sunset. I will be waiting at the HQ." he responded before ending the call. Starlight turned to Insurgency Sunset.
"So, you care after all?" she teased with a smirk. Insurgency Sunset rolled her eyes.
"No, but I'll take any chance to hit the Regime." she replied, taking off her saddlebag and gave it to Starlight. "Take it back to HQ, I'll get Sombra's device."
Ever since the Apple Family were declared outlaws by Empress Twilight, the Regime commandeered Sweet Apple Acres and used it mainly for storing weapons and other magical artifacts. The residents of Ponyville were sad to see what the home of the still beloved Apple family had become but today, nopony was more displeased about it then Regime Cozy Glow.
After her failure to stop the insurgents at the Castle of the Two Sisters, Regime Twilight had her transferred to Sweet Apple Acres to supervise the arrival of the latest shipments of equipment. This was one of the lowest and most insignificant positions within the Regime. And the fact that Regime Twilight assigned Regime Rainbow Dash next to her did not make it any better. They did not like each other and since Regime Rainbow was her superior, she was happy to make the task especially difficult for the grey pegasus filly.
"Can we please just get on with this?!" Regime Cozy snapped. "There's only one shipment left for today and I want to be done with it!" Regime Rainbow narrowed her eyes at her.
"If you think sorting these crates with you is a personal fantasy of mine, Cozy, you are sadly mistaken! Twilight needs me in Canterlot for the preparations of the day of the execution, but she needs somepony on this operation she can actually trust. If you're so incompetent that you can't stop those doppelgängers and a weakened Celestia with Big Mac at your side, you've only yourself to blame." Regime Cozy shot her a dirty look, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it.
She went to the barn door and opened it to let in the cart waiting outside, carrying various crates on it. Once the cart was inside, the two Regime ponies went to get the crates and put them in their places. As they were carrying on, they didn't notice Insurgency Sunset Shimmer rolling out from underneath the cart.
She looked around quickly, trying to spot the number of the crate she was sent to find. Insurgency Sombra gave her the number she can use to identify the crate. To her dismay, the nummber she was given just so happened to be right next to the spot where Regime Rainbow and Regime Cozy were shelving the crate they were currently carrying. Once again, it looked like that she won't get out of this situation without a fight.
She decided to take advantage of the element of surprise and used her magic to yank the crate out of the two pegasi's hold. She then levitated it over Regime Rainbow and before she could react, dropped it on top of her. Despite her enjoyment of seeing Regime Rainbow get squashed by the crate, Regime Cozy knew that she will be next if she won't move. She flew directly at Insurgency Sunset, but the unicorn quickly trapped her in a telekinetic grasp.
"Why won't you be a good little filly and keep your muzzle out of the grownups' business." Insurgency Sunset snarled, throwing Regime Cozy at the wall. But the pegasus was prepared this time. She managed to lift her hooves and her wings, and before she hit the wall, she used a kicking motion to launch herself away from it and fly towards Insurgency Sunset. The unicorn was so shocked by the filly's escape that she had no time to react and Regime Cozy ounched her in the face with enough force to send her flying back.
After Insurgency Sunset recovered, she saw Regime Cozy flying at her for another strike. She tried to knock her back with a spell, but Regime Cozy dodged and punched her again. Realizing that hitting her is not an option, Insurgency Sunset changed her tactic. She noticed an open crate in the corner of the barn that must have been emptied earlier that day and it gave her an idea. She looked back at Regime Cozy who was about to hit her again, but just before her hoof made connection with her muzzle, Insurgency Sunset used a substitute spell to switch places with the crate. Regime Cozy had no time to react. She ended up crashing into the crate, then Insurgency Sunset slammed the crate shut and locked it down with her magic.
"Be grateful I'm not going to shake the crate." she said before bucking the crate away. She then turned towards the crate she was here for, only to find her way being blocked by Regime Rainbow Dash, who understandably looked rather angry.
"Did you think you could keep me down by slamming a crate on me?" she asked furiously. Insurgency Sunset just shrugged.
"Hope springs eternal." she said casually before trying to blast her away. Regime Rainbow dodged so fast that Insurgency Sunset didn't even see her move. She then felt a pair of hooves around her neck and felt herself being thrown back all across the barn, right into a wall. After she landed, she looked up to see Regime Rainbow charging at her and barely had time to teleport out of the way, causing Regime Rainbow to crash into the wall. Insurgency Sunset then lifted the crate she trapped Regime Cozy in and threw it at Regime Rainbow. The pegasus managed to dodge by flying up and the crate went crashing through the wall. Regime Rainbow glared down at the unicorn
"You should have accepted Twilight's amnesty, Sunset. The Regime could have used a unicorn of your skills. Hay, you could have easily become a high ranking officer." Insurgency Sunset felt the need to retch just thinking about it.
"Tempting, but no thanks. Like I told Starlight and Trixie, Sunset Shimmer is no one's puppet! Unlike you!" Regime Rainbow's glare intensified.
"Scum! I'm Twilight's second in command and loyal partner! I'm not a puppet, me and Twilght ARE the Regime! We're in charge of making Equestria better!" she screamed. Insurgency Sunset rolled her eyes.
"If you truly believe that, you're an even bigger fool than I thought. You're a misguided idiot whose mind is clouded by her rage. That's all what you regimers are. And that is why you will lose." Regime Rainbow was about to attack again, but the unicorn's trap has already been sprung. She just wanted to keep Regime Dash talking untill she had levitated the same crate she sent flying through the wall back inside, directly above Regime Dash without her noticing. Before the pegasus could move, Insurgency Sunset slammed the crate down on her, before lifting it back up and doing it again.
"Just... *SLAM* ...stay... *SLAM* ...down... *SLAM* ...al-... *SLAM* ...-ready! *SLAM*" Insurgency Sunset yelled, slamming the crate repeatedly back down on Regime Dash, until the pegasus finally passed out. "Oops. I might have gotten a little carried away." she giggled after she was done as she walked away. Now that she was done, she was finally free to get the crate she came for. She opened the crate and took out everything she needed before making her way out of the barn and heading back towards the tunnels leading back to the Insurgency's HQ.
'This will better be worth it, Sombra.'
Back at the Insurgency's HQ, Insurgency Celestia was studying the document brought to her by Starlight.
"So they will move my counterpart to Canterlot just a few hours before the execution at dawn." she read. The main world ponies who were sitting around her looked at her in concern.
"Will that be a problem?" Shining Armor asked. Insurgency Celestia shook her head.
"Of course not. Though Starlight told me that the Regime is aware that we know posess this knowledge, Sombra assured me that there is nothing to worry about. I have already deduced the perfect spot to ambush the train. And as for the rest of you, I will leave you to dicuss the details of our attack on the castle with my generals." the main world ponies shared a confused glance.
"Your generals?" Rainbow asked.
"Those would be us." a voice said from the entrance of the room. The main world ponies turned around to see the Insurgency's versions of Sunburst, Thunderlane and Flash Sentry standing at the door. Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up!
"Thunderlane!" she yelled as she flew over to the black Pegasus and slammed her forehoof into his from the side. "You son of a breeding mare! Good to see there are still some good ponies on Celestia's side!" Insurgency Thunderlane looked down in shame.
"It wasn't always like that. I used to be on the Regime's side with most of the other Wonderbolts. I needed to take my anger out on somepony or any other creatures after Rumble..." his voice broke at the mention of his little brother. Rainbow Dash gasped in horror.
"No. Not him too." Insurgency Thunderlane nodded sadly.
"Yeah, he was there in Canterlot too five years ago." he confirmed with tears in his eyes. "I wanted to lash out on the whole world, Dash. I wanted to make everyone suffer like I did. Until I realized that this wasn't right. So I defected to the Insurgency and now I'm leading it's airforce division: the PATTROFT." Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
"The PATwhat?"
"P.A.T.T.R.O.F.T. Pegasi Against The Tyrannical Rule Of Twilight." Insurgency Thunderlane explained. Rainbow groaned.
"Ugh. That's a terrible acronym. And why is there an F in it?" Insurgency Thunderlane shrugged.
"It was the best we got and it just stuck. Don't worry after we've won this war and reformed the Wonderbolts, we'll abolish it."
"You better." Dash replied. "So, anypony else I know on this team of yours?" Insurgency Thunderlane smiled.
"There's Cloudchaser, Bulk Biceps and a couple of others. We tried to get Spitfire to come with us, but she decided to stay with the Regime and actually blew the whistle on us to Twilight." Rainbow's eyes widened.
"Spitfire did that?" Insurgency Thunderlane nodded.
"I don't know why. She was stripped of her rank as Wonderbolts commander when Twilight seized power and she was always treated pretty poorly in the Regime. My guess is because of Soarin. He also died in Canterlot and there were rumors that they were a thing. I guess she never recovered from that. But enough about the past, let's focus on the future. Will you fly with us tomorrow, Rainbow Dash? It would be an honor to fly by your side again." Suffice to say, Rainbow instantly agreed.
Shining Armor was also having a similarly heartfelt reunion with Insurgency Flash Sentry. The pegasus saluted the unicorn.
"Sir, I realize this isn't entirely accurate, but it's an honor serve by your side again." Shining returned the salute.
"The honor is all mine, General Sentry." he replied. Insurgency Flash blushed.
"Oh, please stop. I'm still not used to that title." Shining chuckled.
"So, how did you end up here?" he asked.
"After the death of your counterpart, Princess Cadence promoted me to lead the Crystal Guard, but when I openly opposed her alligning with the Regime, she had me imprisoned and planned to turn me over to Twilight. The insurgents broke me out and since they could use my military experience, they made me a general."
"And what about you, General Sunburst?" Cadence asked teasingly. Insurgency Sunburst looked down in embarrassment.
"It's all but a formality. Warfare is hardly my field of expertise. I'm actually in charge of the insurgency's research and development. I even helped Sombra create the anti-alicorn device. Too bad it went to waste." he lamented. Nopony noticed Starlight look down sheepishly. Insurgency Celestia stood up and cleared her throat.
"Well then, since you all understand each other so well, I shall leave you to the preparations. We have until Friday dawn to get ready."
"For what exactly?" Applejack asked. Insurgency Celestia stopped for a moment before she left the room and turned her head too look back at them.
"The battle."
Author's Note
So here's chapter 7. I hope you enjoy it!
Also, I finally found the way I think is best to distinguish characters from the main world from the ones in the Unfriendship world. I wasn't satisfied with the "Unfriendship!" marking as I thought it stood out from the text too much, so I'll just call Unfriendship characters Regime X and Insurgency X. Tell me if you think that's a good idea or not.
See ya next time! 😉
Chapter 8: Insurgency Celestia
"Everypony in position?" asked Insurgency Celestia through her comm crystal. Rainbow Dash was the first to respond.
"Rainbow Dash and the Fliers are ready for takeoff!" she reported, shooting a grateful smile towards Insurgency Thunderlane for letting her respond even though it would have been his job as the leader of the unit. The black pegasus gave her a quizzical look.
""Rainbow Dash and the Fliers"?" he asked in annoyance. "I should have known your Equestria sized ego would get the better of you. It's the PAT..." but Rainbow Dash cut him off.
"Forget it! I'm not using that atrocity of an acronym!"
"Focus, my little ponies!" Insurgency Celestia ordered. "Now, how about you, ground team?"
"We're all in position. We're waiting for our signal to storm the castle." responded Insurgency Flash Sentry from next to Princess Cadence. "With a Princess by our side, they couldn't be more confident!" he added.
"You better make sure she won't get hurt, Flash!" Shining Armor warned the holographic image of the pegasus. Cadence rolled her eyes.
"Shining, please, I'm an alicorn princess. If anything, you should worry about our enemies." she told her husband a little smugly. Shining Armor looked down sheepishly.
"I'm sorry, honey. I know you can take care of yourself. But I'm your husband. I'm obligated to worry."
"I know, honey and I appreciate it." Cadence replied sweetly.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have a military operation to carry out." snapped Insurgency Pharinx from another comm crystal. Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes at the image of the changeling.
"You just make sure that Regime forces outside the palace are occupied! My strike teams will have a hard enough time with the palace guards alone!" she snapped at him. Insurgency Thorax was who was standing next to his brother replied on his usual cheerful voice.
"Don't worry, General Princess Ma'am! Those patrols will be lucky to find the tips of their weapons, let alone their way to the palace should reinforcements be summoned. Your ponies can focus all on the guards inside the palace. We will handle everything outside!" he reassured.
"You better!" Shining Armor retorted angrily. He still had a hard time getting used to the idea of working with changelings, let alone trusting them when an important battle and the life of his wife was on the line. Insurgency Pharynx just rolled his eyes and shut off the comm crystal before turning back to the cell door that held the main world's Queen Chrysalis captive at the Insurgency's base to open it.
"And while we're at it, General Princess Ma'am, do you want us to keep a bath warm for your royal bum when you return? With a massage for all four of your hooves and a box of bon bons fed to you?" Chrysalis mocked from within the cell. "I take back everything I said about you becoming king in the statue garden! The fact that you lead our race now is an embarrassment to changelings in not only this universe and mine, but in every universe, you slimy little hoof licker!" Insurgency Thorax winced at her tone.
"I'm not sure if this is a good idea, Pharynx." he told his brother nervously. "You heard what Celestia said. She wants to keep her locked up." Insurgency Pharynx paid him no mind. Chrysalis walked out of her cell and glared down at the complaining changeling.
"I would worry less about her, Thorax, and more about me!" she hissed in his face before turning around. "Now, let's go! If you want to bring mayhem and chaos to those guard ponies, I know the perfect way do that!" she said smugly as she walked away. Insurgency Pharynx followed her with an eager smile but Insurgency Thorax seemed a little more conflicted. While he was originally on board with having Chrysalis around, he was starting to get a feeling that this will not work out well for them. Or anyone for that matter.
Insurgency Celestia and Shining Armor were waiting for the train while hiding in a bush next to the railroad.
"Where is that train already?!" Shining Armor complained impatiently.
"It should be here anytime now. Be patient." Insurgency Celestia replied, though she was getting a little frustrated herself.
"I'm starting to think Starlight was right. The Regime realized we were after that train and canceled it."
"Sombra assured me that this wasn't the case. Besides, canceling the train and therefore delaying the execution would imply disturbances withing the Regime towards Equestria. Twilight would never allow that." Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes in an attempt to finally catch sight of an approaching train and a few seconds later, her efforts were finally rewarded.
"There it is." the alicorn announced to her unicorn companion. "Alert the fliers!" Shining nodded and turned back to his comm crystal.
"The train is here! It's time!"
"Copy that, Captain!" Insurgency Thunderlane replied. "Alright everypony, prepare for takeoff!" the Insurgency Pegasi and Rainbow Dash all took off into the sky and headed towards the castle. The still dark sky provided perfect cover for them as they soared over the city and flew over the castle courtyard.
"Target in sight!" Insurgency Thunderlane announced as he spotted the gallows in the courtyard. "Rainbow, deliver the package!" Rainbow Dash just smirked and began to dive at breakneck speed with the bomb she was holding, she let go of it and it hit the gallows with perfect accuracy. The resulting explosion shook the entire castle and created a hole in the wall it was set up next to. Everypony heard it throughout the city, including Insurgency Flash Sentry's ground forces.
"That's our cue! Go, go, go!" he commanded as all insurgent forces came out of their hiding spots and headed towards the castle. With the ruined wall, they easily swarmed the courtyard. The Regime forces inside the castle were thrown into disarry.
"What in Tartarus is going on here?!" Regime Twilight demanded as she emerged from her throne room, followed by Regime Nightmare Moon, Regime Blueblood and Regime Spitfire.
"Your majesty!" a guard replied as he bowed. "The castle is under attack!"
"What?" the Regime officers gasped.
"How can this be? It's too soon!" Regime Blueblood panicked.
"Who cares?" snapped Regime Spitfire. "If they want a fight, I say we give it to them!"
Regime Twilight ordered all available Regime forces into the courtyard, where the fight was already raging. Applejack was doing what she did best. Bucking. Only instead of apple trees, she was bucking the daylight out of Regime soldiers. She was so into it that she didn't notice one charging at her from behind. By the time she turned around, it was too late for her to react and she was only saved when another pony tripped the charging soldier. The regime pony tried to get up, but Applejack and her rescuer bucked him in the helmet from both sides which sent him back down. Applejack then turned and shared a hoofbump with her savior, who turned out to be none other than the Insurgency's older and bigger version of her sister, Applebloom.
"The only thing that would have made this more awesome if I did it with mah Applejack!" she cheered. Applejack patted her on the shoulder.
"Come on, sugarcube, let's buck a few more of 'em in her name."
In tha air, Rainbow Dash was doing her best to take out as many Regime Pegasi as she could. They were no match for her. Her usual cocky attitude evaporated immediately as she bumped into Regime Twilight in the air. The empress tried to blast the pegasus away, but was interrupted by Applejack's lasso wrapping around her horn, pulling her down.
"Can we play too?" Applejack asked with Cadence at her side. Regime Twilight flew up into the air, carrying the earth pony off with her. She then spun around a few time and threw Applejack at Rainbow Dash. The two crashed into each other and then into the ground. Regime Twilight was about to fly down to finish them off, but Cadence got in the way.
"You are a disgrace to the name of Twilight Sparkle!" she said, blasting her with a spell, but to her shock, it had no effect on her.
"Bold words! Let's see you repeat them with broken jaws!" Regime Twilight threatened, reaching to grab Cadence's muzzle, but she flew off before she could grab it. Regime Twilight flew off after her.
"They're on their way." Shining Armor notified Insurgency Celestia. "Let's hope they make it in time."
"Thunderlane and his crew never let me down in the past. You should focus more on our task." Insurgency Celestia replied. Shining Armor turned back towards the railway.
"That's a rather... creative roadblock the changelings came up with." he said, looking at the small wooden scaffolding that had a captured Regime soldier tied up by all four of his limbs and his mouth tied shut. But most noticeably, he was painted all purple and on his belly, the words "Buck Twilight" were shaven into his fur. "Let's hope it'll make them stop. Seeing a pony smeared on the railroad was not within my plans for the day."
Thankfully, Shining's plans for the day were not upset as a couple of seconds later, he heard the screeching sound of the trains emergency break. It stopped just on front of the roadblock.
"Phase 1 complete." Insurgency Celestia said. "Commence phase 2."
"What is the meaning of this?!" asked the conductor in shock. There was another Regime guard next to him in the locomotive and needless to say, he wasn't amused when he saw the little message.
"Looks like some of the insurgents were in a funny mood." he scoffed. "Come, help me clean this up." the two ponies exited the engine and walked up to the roadblock. The pony tied to it squirmed and moaned incoherently at the other two as the train guard removed the bondage from his mouth.
"IT'S A TRAP!" he screamed at them, but it was too late. Insurgency Celestia and Shining Armor grabbed them from behind and knocked their heads against each other, knocking them both out.
"Thank you for your service. Now you get to get to take a nap." Insurgency Celestia told the tied guard before knocking him out as well. She then turned to Shining Armor.
"Clear the roadblock away then prepare the engine and wait for me to arrive with my counterpart." she instructed. The two ponies got on the engine and Insurgency Celestia headed towards the first wagon to begin her search of the main world's Celestia, but before she could, she found that her search was interrupted before it could even begin, as upon opening the wagon door, she found herself facing a cannon. More specifically, Regime Pinkie Pie's party cannon. Insurgency Celestia looked up to see Regime Pinkie and Regime Flurry Heart inside the wagon waiting for them.
"Hiya, Princess!" Regime Pinkie waved cheerfully before the cannon fired. Insurgency Celestia didn't even have time to utter some curse. It was only with Shining Armor's help that she could raise a powerful enough shield in time to protect herself from the blast. Regime Flurry turned to Regime Pinkie.
"She's no longer a princess, you know. You don't have call her that. And she's our enemy. Why are you so happy to see her?" she asked. Regime Pinkie just grinned at her.
"Why wouldn't I be happy, Flurry? The character I play will be a good guy in the sequel. Yours on the other hoof will stay a sourpuss meanypants, so I understand why you'd be so cranky." Regime Flurry didn't even pretend to understand that. Instead, she turned back to the two ponies in front of her.
"Once Twilight heard of your theft of the documents about this train, she knew you were up to something. So she decided to put us here on guard duty." she told them smugly. But on the inside, she didn't feel so smug about it. Guard duty was one of the lowest level of duties within the Regime. High ranking officers like them were usually assigned to tasks like this as punishment for failure. Just like in their cases, as Twilight was not happy with Pinkie for letting Regime Starlight's counterpart get past her and Regime Flurry for failing to round up the changelings in the Statue Garden.
Shining Armor just stared in shock at the counterpart of his daughter. "Flurry? What are you doing here?" Regime Flurry just stared at the doppelgänger of his late father, before turning to Insurgency Celestia with a glare.
"Pulling over my father's counterpart? I heard Twilight talking about it, but I wasn't sure if I should believe it. But I guess I should have expected such a low move from you." Insurgency Celestia returned her firm stare.
"Once again, you see enemies and hostility where there is none, Flurry. I see Twilight's 'teachings' are showing." the older alicorn scoffed. Regime Flurry smirked viciously.
"Unlike yours on her?" Insurgency Celestia did not take kindly of this brat rubbing it in her face how she failed as Twilight's teacher. In a rather uncharacteristic moment, she tried blasting her with a spell. Regime Flurry flew out of the way and charged straight at Insurgency Celestia, but she intercepted by Shining Armor. Insurgency Celestia went to help him, but she was interrupted by another shot from Regime Pinkie's cannon.
"Uh-uh-uh!" the pink pony sang merrily. "Your first fight in this chapter is against me, remember?" Insurgency Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"Do honestly believe that you can stop me, Pinkie Pie?" Regime Pinkie shrugged.
"Not really, but it's part of the plot so it's not like I have a choice. Why did you start this whole rebellion thing to begin with? If you just followed us like Luna did, there wouldn't be a war in the first place and all of us and our friends could live happily together in Twilight's utopia." Insurgency Celestia was baffled at the pink pony's delusion.
"Twilight is oppressing all of Equestria and her tyranny is causing far more damage than any of the villains she's trying to protect it from! Of all ponies, I thought you would understand how much your friends are suffering under her rule! And yet you were among the first ones to abandon me when Twilight took over!" Insurgency Celestia replied angrily. Regime Pinkie seemed conflicted, but she also seemed to be still struggling to convince herself that she was on the right side.
"I was just trying to..." Regime Pinkie started, but Insurgency Celestia wasn't having any of it.
"Save it, Pinkie! You had to choose between doing what's right or following your friends down on the path to this madness and you merely took the easy way out. Peer pressure is an excellent justification for the weak willed, isn't it?" Regime Pinkie's face into a frown as her eyes became watery.
"Twilight was right! You are no longer a Princess but a big meanypants!" her face then darkened into a glare. "So be it! If you want to be a party pooper, Twilight knows exactly how to deal with the likes of you!"
The pink mare fired at the alicorn with her cannon again, but Insurgency Celestia quickly conjured up a plug and shoved it into the cannon. But unlike her counterpart from the main universe, Regime Pinkie was prepared for this. She quickly spun around and kicked the cannon towards Insurgency Celestia. The cannon exploded and the blast sent Insurgency Celestia crashing into the wall.
Insurgency Celestia tried to pick up, but Regime Pinkie kept pushing her back down. She then suddenly bucked the alicorn in the side, kicking her further away from herself. She went to kick her again, but Insurgency Celestia levitated a broken part of the destroyed party cannon in front of her and Regime Pinkie kicked that instead. That was too solid even for her. Regime Pinkie yelped in pain and sat down to rub her aching hoof and Insurgency Celestia used this chance to hit her in the head with the debry, knocking her out.
"You joined the wrong side, Pinkie Pie." Insurgency Celestia said coldly, before she left to help Shining Armor, who was struggling with the counterpart of his daughter.
"Flurry, stop!" he begged. "I'm sure if my counterpart was here, he wouldn't want you to do this! Why did you even leave your mother's side to fight for Twilight? I don't understand!" Regime Flurry just glared.
"He WOULD still be here if Celestia wasn't such a stubborn, weak fool and just killed the likes Chrysalis the first time they attacked! Even after Canterlot was destroyed, she refused to admit that she was wrong and her harmony failed! And Cadence just went back to the Empire to wallow in her self pity! I fight for Twilight because she was the only one willing to do anything to protect Equestria and make sure that it never happens again! She took me under her wings and trained me to become just like her! She's been more of a mother than Cadence ever could be!" Regime Flurry then prepared to launch another attack, but Insurgency Celestia grabbed her tail with her magic and pulled her back, throwing her across the wagon.
"Is that the reason she's throwing you into battles far below an alicorn and ordering you to kill your fellow ponies just because they don't agree with her? Can't you see she's turning you into a weapon?" Insurgency Celestia lectured, but Regime Flurry had the perfect answer.
"Like how you weaponized Twilight and her friends with the elements of harmony? You are such a hypocrite!" to this, Insurgency Celestia had no answer. The filly shot a venomous look at the elder alicorn as she got up and launched herself at insurgency Celestia in a fit of rage.
Despite Insurgency Celestia's reservations about her methods, she couldn't deny that Regime Twilight taught Regime Flurry well. She was always powerful, even as an infant, but with Regime Twilight's teachings, she learned to fully control her magic. She was a powerful adversary, but while Shining Armor failed to subdue her, he did manage to wear her down. And Regime Twilight never taught her how to handle her impulses. Regime Flurry's anger lead her to throw her most powerful attacks at her late father's counterpart and the former princess from the start. Insurgency Celestia just had to avoid them and protect herself, which she could manage easily.
In a few minutes, Regime Flurry used up all of her strength and tired herself out, becoming an exhausted, panting mass on the ground. Her attacks barely scratched Insurgency Celestia and she was so spent that she couldn't even look up as the elder alicorn approached her. "Me and Sombra have been talking about having a foal before this war started. The way you turned out, Flurry, I seriously doubt I would be up for it anymore."
"Sta... stay away... from me..." Regime Flurry panted. Insurgency Celestia just pressed a hoof against her lips.
"Shhh..." she then closed her eyelids and allowed her exhaustion to carry her off into unconsciousness.
"Thanks for going easy on her." Shining Armor said as he walked up to her. Insurgency Celestia just nodded.
"She is not bad, just misguided and blinded by her rage and grief over losing you. And Twilight took full advantage of that."
"Can you reform her?" the stallion asked in concern.
"Once we're done, I will dedicate great effort to it, but now we must move on. It's safe to say your Celestia isn't in this wagon." Shining Armor nodded and the two proceeded to the next wagon. Celestia slowly opened the door just a little to peek inside, just in case if there were anymore guards in the wagon. To the both of their indescribable relief, it seemed empty, except for a large, cage in the middle of it, which contained exactly what they were looking for: Princess Celestia from the main universe, although badly wounded and hurt on the floor. Clearly Regime Twilight did a number on her.
"Princess Celestia!" Shining Armor yelled, running up to the cage. Celestia slowly opened her swollen eyes and looked up at the unicorn.
"Shining Armor." she muttered softly with a light smile. "I'm happy to see both a familiar and a friendly face." she then noticed her counter part slowly approaching the cage as well. "So you are the cause of all this uproar." Insurgency Celestia actually chuckled at this.
"I could say the same about you." she then turned to Shining Armor. "Get her out of there, I'll go and start the engine."
"Oh, no, ya won't!" all three ponies in the wagon jumped in surprise as Regime Applejack barged in, carrying the same net gun she used to capture the main world Celestia. Insurgency Celestia frowned.
"Open the cage. I'll take care of this." Shining Armor obeyed as Insurgency Celestia walked up to the orange mare. Regime Applejack raised her weapon at her opponent.
"No more tricks, ya hear! This has gone on long enough!" she shouted. Insurgency Celestia stopped a few feet away from her, her gaze remaining cold as steel.
"I couldn't agree more." she growled before tearing the weapon out of Regime Applejack's hooves. Regime Applejack stumbled back in surprise, but she tried to maintain her fiery glare, which wasn't affecting Insurgency Celestia in the slightest.
"Besides my former student, you were the pony who disappointed me the most, Applejack. Not only did you turn against me and all of Equestria, but your entire family as well. Most stunningly, you did this out of fear. You stood bravely against Nightmare Moon, Discord and the Changelings, yet it was Twilight, one of your closest friends to reduce you to a coward. Looks like even I don't know my little ponies as well as I thought."
Regime Applejack was obviously unhappy with being reminded of this. "Shut up! Ya don't know anything!" it was obvious that she was trying to convince herself rather the Insurgency Celestia. She looked so desperate to come up with an excuse to justify her actions and was failing so pathetically that the alicorn actually took pity on her in that moment. She took another step towards her.
"It's not too late, Applejack. I knew many ponies who used to be afraid. Just like you. But they could overcome their fears. You can too." she offered a hoof to Regime Applejack. "All you have to do is take a step forward." the earth pony seemed to be considering it, but just as Insurgency Celestia got her hopes up, she saw her face give way to fear once again and knew what was coming. Before Regime Applejack could attack, Insurgency Celestia pushed her away and used her magic to shut the wagon door on her head, knocking her out.
"If only you could see that Twilight is the enemy." she lamented. She was about to walk past her, but she was stopped by a blast the sent her crashing against the wall. She got up groaning, only to see Shining Armor approaching her and charging his horn for another blast.
"Shining Armor! What are you doing?!" she exclaimed in shock.
"You should be asking me." Insurgency Celestia turned to see Regime Trixie standing in the corner of the wagon. She noticed her horn glowing with faint light in the same color as Shining Armor's eyes seemed to be glowing. She quickly figured out what was going on.
"What's wrong, Trixe? Are you afraid of taking on me yourself?" Regime Trixie glared at her for the insult.
"Don't be ridiculous. It's just that Trixie doesn't see the point of getting herself dirty in a fight when I could get this dumb stallion to do it for her." she said, trying to sound convincing, but she wasn't fooling anypony.
"Right." Insurgency Celestia responded, mostly to herself, as she tried to come up with a way to neutralize Shining Armor without hurting him. Shining shot another blast at the alicorn, but she dodged with ease. She tried to get around him to get a shot at Regime Trixie, but Shining Armor kept getting in the way. Everytime Insurgency Celestia tried to get past him, he fired again. He fired two blasts at the same time, Insurgency Celestia had to counter one of them with a blast of her own to get out of the way of the other. Shining then fired three blasts. Insurgency Celestia countered one, dodged the second, but the third one hit her body. She fell back and collapsed on the floor. Regime Trixie stood up and smirked triumphantly...
"HA! You should have known better than to challenge the great and powerful...
'THWACK'
...and then fell on the ground unconscious. Insurgency Celestia looked up in surprise to see her counterpart standing over the blue unicorn with one of her forehooves raised. Apparently, Shining managed to loosen the lock enough for Celestia to get out and incapacitate Regime Trixie. But given her state, it was all she could do before collapsing herself. Insurgency Celestia walked up to her and put one of her wings around herself. before she was joined by Shining Armor who was snapped out of Regime Trixie's mind control and wrapped the other wing around himself.
"Hey, uh, when we recount the story of our daring rescue to the others, could we leave out this part?" Insurgency Celestia just shook her head and headed off towards the engine.
In Canterlot Castle, the insurgents were doing their best to keep the Regime forces occupied. Though they couldn't help but mentally urge their Celestia to hurry up so they can retreat already. Especially the main world ponies were trying to fight off Regime Twilight, with less then more success.
Applejack was already out and Rainbow Dash was trying to lead the crazed empress away from her. She was faster than her, but she still couldn't outfly a magical blast which reached her and threw her off course. Regime Twilight caught up with her and pressed her hooves together at Rainbow's throat in an attempt to crush her neck. Rainbow tried to struggle, but Regime Twilight was too strong. The pegasus' eyes rolled back and she was about to pass out. She was only saved by the intervention of Cadence, who crashed into her from behind and then fired a blast at her. Regime Twilight recovered in time to counter with a blast of her own and the engaged in a beam-of-war. Cadence held up admirably, but with Regime Twilight's much increased magic and her depowered state, she was no match.
Regime Twilight blasted her away, but instead of chasing her, she took a moment to catch her breath. There was one thing she just couldn't wrap her head around. Why were the insurgents attacking the castle so vehemently now? The other Celestia wasn't even here yet. Her train still hasn't arrived from...
Her eyes widened. The train! it should have arrived by now! This attack took her mind off of it completely, which was no doubt her Celestia's goal! She narrowed her eyes and let out a scream of rage before taking off into the direction of the railway.
'Damn you, Celestia! Damn you to the lowest pits of Tartarus! You tricked me!'
After cleaning up the roadblock and restarting the engine, the two Celestias and Shining Armor settled down and waited for the train to get close enough to the city for Insurgency Sombra to teleport them back to HQ. Shining Armor was tending to Princess Celestia's injuries while Insurgency Celestia was minding the engine. Canterlot was already in sight which was a welcome sight for all three of them. But their joy was short-lived as they heard a crash from the wagon behind them. Insurgency Celestia opened the door to find Regime Twilight standing under a whole in the ceiling. And she looked absolutely furious.
Insurgency Celestia was terrified beyond belief, but she managed to keep that out of her expression.
"Mind the engine. We're almost there." she told Shining Armor. The stallion nodded and took over from her. Insurgency Celestia stopped at the door and Regime Twilight started to walk slowly towards her.
"You thought you could fool me, Celestia? Like she did?!" Regime Twilight demanded. Insurgency Celestia remained stoic.
"This isn't about Chrysalis, this is about you, Twilight. And what you have become." she spoke calmly. Or at least as calmly as she could be given the situation. 'Anytime now, Sombra.'
"You always taught me to hold back! When we should have used all of our power!" Regime Twilight shouted, causing Insurgency Celestia to scowl.
"Use for what? To control and oppress Equestria?" Regime Twilight's glare intensified by tenfold.
"We could have prevented Canterlot! Saved my family! All of those lives were lost because we held back!" Insurgency Celestia's eyes narrowed.
"I lost friends at Canterlot too, Twilight!" Regime Twilight's stare somewhat softened when she heard this, but her glare returned a second later as her eyes lit up with dark violet light.
"BUT YOU WEREN'T THE ONE WHO CAUSED THEIR DEATHS!" Regime Twilight screamed before leaping at her former mentor, but as she was about to pound her, she was stunned to see her disappear right in front of her eyes. She looked up to see that her mentor's and her late brother's counterparts were disappearing as well. In the last moment, Shining Armor pulled the emergency break before he vanished and train came to a halt with a horrid screech and a sudden stop that made Regime Twilight fall over.
'What in the name of... What just happened?' Regime Twilight got up and flew out of the train to look around in a vain effort to find locate her enemies, before her search was interrupted by a loud scream coming from the city.
"TWILIGHT! YOUR TIME IS OVER!" Regime Twilight instantly recognized the voice as her eyes narrowed.
'So, you finally show your true colors.'
Author's Note
And here's chapter 8! Sorry it took another month, but university started again and it's tough. But I've also been working on the next chapters in parallel with this, so those will come quicker. Pinkie Pie Promise.
I've also been feeling bad how I adapted chapter 7 and 8 of Injustice, as Chapter 8 starts immediately after 7, but I made it a day later. Hence why this chapter starts with the insurgents discussing their plan. I think that fixed this issue well.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it, stay tuned for more! :)
Chapter 9: Insurgency Sombra
Three hours earlier...
At the Insurgency's HQ, Starlight Glimmer and Insurgency Sunburst were putting on the finishing touches on Insurgency Sombra's upgraded anti-alicorn armor. Insurgency Celestia and the others have already left for their rescue mission, so there was no risk of them getting caught. It was Insurgency Sombra's specific request that his wife wouldn't find out about this. This was something he had to do himself.
"The attack on the castle has probably started by now." Starlight said, causing Insurgency Sunburst to pause his work and look at her.
"Would you rather be out there?"
"Understandable, isn't it? My friends are out there, fighting against the most powerful being in Equestria to save Princess Celestia and I'm stuck in here!" Starlight complained. Insurgency Sunburst put on a hurt expression.
"And here I was thinking you were happy to spend time with me." he joked, causing Starlight to chuckle. Though there was a certain bitterness in it that prevented Starlight from laughing at it. Before she could ask about it, Insurgency Sombra entered the room.
"Is it ready?"
"As it'll ever be." Insurgency Sunburst replied, giving the suit a pat. "Though I still wish you would have told me earlier that you found a way to fix it. I could have found a way to make it safer."
"Safer?" Insurgency Sombra retorted with a raised eyebrow. "Sunburst, I'm about to embark on a suicide mission to bring down the most powerful pony on the planet in the middle of a heated battle with only one shot to make it count. Safety was never an option here."
"Not with that attitude." Insurgency Sunburst muttered under his breath with an eye roll. Insurgency Sombra stepped forward and gave the armor a long, contemplative look, which didn't go unnoticed by Starlight.
"Having second thoughts?" Insurgency Sombra sighed and looked down.
"There's no room for second thoughts here. If I won't do this, nopony else will." Insurgency Sunburst felt this was the perfect time to bring up something again.
"I think Celestia would. If only you told her..."
"Sunburst, we went over this already. I told you why I'm the one who has to do this." Insurgency Sunburst finally gave up and left the room with a groan. Starlight watched him walking away in concern.
"Is he gonna be okay?"
"No, I don't think he will." Insurgency Sombra replied as he started putting on the suit, greatly surprising Starlight with his blunt answer. "The falling out he had with his Starlight when she joined the Regime really broke him. He loved her. He probably still does, but now he has to live with the knowledge that they can never be together again. Either the Regime wins and we're all gonna be imprisoned or executed, or we win and our Starlight will be imprisoned along with the other Regimers, probably for life." he explained.
Starlight cast another look at the door which Insurgency Sunburst walked out on. That would explain this bitterness she had never seen on his Sunburst. And from what she gathered he was also friends with Sombra in this world. So watching him march off into battle, probably to his doom, did little to lift his spirits.
"Either way, now we have a job to do." Insurgency Sombra pulled out a purple pill and swallowed it.
"Is that the alicorn pill the others mentioned?" Starlight asked.
"You didn't take yours?" Insurgency Sombra asked curiously.
"Are you kidding? I have a pill that increases the consumers abilities and endurance to alicorn levels! No way I'm gonna give up on a chance to study that!" Insurgency Sombra couldn't help but chuckle at this. She was Twilight's student alright. "Hey, if this mission is so dangerous, why don't you take more? Maybe those would make you stronger than Twilight. Or at least an equal."
"That's not how they work. Besides, overdose can be very dangerous. This is how we lost Fleetfoot. That idiot thought if she swallowed a bunch of them she'll be able to take on Twilight on her own. Worked about as well as you'd expect." he then finished putting the armor on completely and turned towards the exit.
"Well, here goes nothing. But before I head out..." he pulled out an envelope and gave it to Starlight. "I would like you to give it to Celestia. My Celestia, to be precise. Can you do that for me?" Starlight looked at the letter.
"Would there be any point to me saying you'll get to give it to her yourself?"
"I think we both know the answer to that." Insurgency Sombra replied with the same blank expression. Starlight sighed and took the letter. "Thank you." the stallion said before making his way out, leaving Starlight to look at the letter with a sad expression.
Insurgency Sombra was making his way through the streets of Canterlot towards the castle where he hoped he would find the Empress. He met no resistance. In fact, he met nopony at all. Though, this shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, considering the skirmish at the castle. All the Regime and Insurgency forces were at the castle and the civilians were hiding in their homes. Insurgency Sombra's hopes slowly started rising. Maybe this mission won't be so hopeless after all.
Immediately after that thought, he was hit by something with such a force that it knocked him down to the ground. Before he could get up to look around for his attacker, he felt all four of his hooves held down on the ground. He could only struggle as a black figure walked over him and leaned to his face. It was a changeling.
"Call Thorax! We got another one!" he instructed the others. Insurgency Sombra quickly realized what was going on. The changelings believed him to be a Regimer. Now that he thought about it, perhaps he should have made some slight alterations in the suit's design. It was based on Regime tech and appearance and he and Insurgency Sunburst followed the blueprints to a t.
He could probably clean up this little misunderstanding, since Insurgency Thorax knew he was with the insurgents, but there was no time for that. He had to get to the castle as quickly as possible, but he also had to use his magic sparingly. He needed every bit of it against Regime Twilight. Before he could think about a solution, the changeling above him spoke.
"You know, it's been a while since we've had a proper meal, boys. For all five of us, this one may only provide a little snack, but it's better than nothing." the changeling snarled, before he placed his hooves on the sides of Insurgency Sombra's head and started to drain his love. And by doing so, he unwittingly gave him an opening. Insurgency Sombra headbutted the changeling, making him tumble into the one who was holding down his right backleg. This knocked him over and Insurgency Sombra immediately used his newly freed limb to kick away the changeling holding the other. He then pulled his legs up and tried to do a back flip to kick away the ones who were holding his forelegs. Once he was free, he wasted no time and started to run further towards the castle. But he never made it far. Before he could even make it down the street, a figure landed right in front of him and punched him, making him back away. The unicorn looked up to see Insurgency Thorax blocking his way.
"Just where do you think you're going, huh?"
"Thorax, stop! It's me! I'm..." Insurgency Sombra's attempt to talk his way out was interrupted by another punch.
"Hello, me! Looks like you already know me, so I won't bother with an introduction. Nice to beat you!" Insurgency Sombra knew by that point that he won't make it out if this without a fight. He was quickly able to subdue Insurgency Thorax even without his magic, the new changeling king wasn't much of a fighter. But he managed to hold him up for long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Without being able to rely on his magic, Insurgency Sombra was quickly overwhelmed. He struggled in vain to get out of the changelings' grasp, but simply too many of them were holding him down. He looked up at Insurgency Thorax, but before he could try and explain himself again, a second figure stepped next to him. Insurgency Sombra scowled as he realized the main world's Chrysalis.
"Excellent catch, Thorax." Chrysalis mused. "I feel this one has extremely powerful magic. We might be able to use him for more than just a food source." Insurgency Sombra turned his glare towards Insurgency Thorax.
"You let her out and now you're also letting her take control of your race again, Thorax? Some king you are." when the changeling heard the voice. he finally realized who he was dealing with.
"Wait, Sombra? What are you doing out here?" Chrysalis raised an eyebrow.
"Sombra, you say?" the changeling queen scanned the unicorn with her horn. "You are a very powerful unicorn in my world, but that's nothing compared to what I'm feeling in you. I'm a little curious about you." Insurgency Sombra just rolled his eyes.
"I don't have time for this! Unless you want Twilight to win, let me go!" he yelled. Insurgency Thorax found this hard to believe.
"You beating Twilight? How? Even Celestia couldn't do that on her own."
"My armor. It has highly advanced magic inside it that can depower Twilight and take away her alicorn abilities." this got Chrysalis' attention. A suit with that much magical power could surely get her back to her world.
"That is very interesting. Tell me, Sombra, would you mind sharing?" she started walking towards the unicorn who immediately realized what she meant. She was going to take his suit. He had no choice, he had to use his magic now! Trying to use as little as he could, he managed to blast away the changelings who were holding him down. He ignited his horn and pointed it at Chrysalis.
"Don't try anything stupid! With this suit's power, I can easily overwhelm you!" Chrysalis just chuckled.
"I'm not so sure about that. We have been rounding up quite a few Regimers out here and I have taken a little love from each of them." she ignited her own horn and started advancing towards Insurgency Sombra. Insurgency Thorax wasn't liking how things were progressing and decided to stand between the two quarreling creatures.
"Hey, I think we should just settle down and talk things over. We all want the same thing here." Chrysalis had to restrain herself from slapping her forehead. Just how naive and ignorant this stupid grub was?
"Maybe you do, but I will be more than happy with a ticket back to my world. And with all the love I've collected here and that suit, I will be able to get." Insurgency Thorax was dumbstruck.
"But... according to what Sombra said, we're gonna need that suit to take down Twilight." Chrysalis growled. She just about had enough of this stupid kid.
"Did you actually think I care about your stupid little war, your rebellion and your hive? All I want is a way back home!" Insurgency Thorax was horrified.
"You're just going to ditch us? But... how can this be? Our Chrysalis even gave her life to tear down harmony in Equestria and leave it vulnerable for us!"
"Then your Chrysalis was an even bigger fool than you are! Now get out of my way!" she then blasted him away and threw herself at Insurgency Sombra. The unicorn was force on defensive, not wanting to waste any more of his magic. Instead, he tried to throw various debris at her that he found lying around. He had a hard time with this without his magic as he was not an earth pony. But Chrysalis used a magical barrier to protect herself with. Anything Insurgency Sombra threw at her just bounced off.
Cursing under his breath, Insurgency Sombra turned around and ran off to hide between the buildings. Chrysalis smirked viciously. "You can run, but you can't hide, Sombra. I can track your love. Never thought I'd ever feel it inside any version of you. And for Celestia, no less. But it gives you away." Chrysalis followed the trail of love which increased in intensity. Insurgency Sombra must be getting tired. And indeed, he caught her at the end of a street, panting and leaning against a building.
"There you are!" Chrysalis exclaimed in glee. She grabbed Insurgency Sombra with a telekinetic grab and slammed him against a wall, she then leaned in his face and focused all of her magic into her horn as she shoved in in his face. "Now, why don't you make it easy on yourself and just give me your suit." To Chrysalis' surprise, Insurgency Sombra just smiled brightly.
"Sorry, but I don't have it." Chrysalis looked down at him in confusion. He could clearly see the armor on him, what was he talking about? But then, Insurgency Sombra's body lit up in green light and he transformed into Insurgency Thorax. Chrysalis recoiled in shock.
"What?!" Insurgency Thorax then leaned his head to the side and Chrysalis felt her head being shoved into the wall. As it turned out, Insurgency Sombra sneaked up on her and bucked her from behind. Insurgency Thorax then used his own magic to finish the job with a blast that knocked the wicked queen unconscious.
"Thanks Thorax." Insurgency Sombra said as he helped the changeling up. "Without you, I would have wasted much magic to deal with her."
"If you really wanna thank me, don't tell Celestia that we let her out, ok?" Insurgency Thorax said nervously.
"Only if you keep her locked up this time." Insurgency Sombra replied with a chuckle.
"We will. And thanks. We will keep causing trouble around the city, you go and get Twilight. Good luck!" Insurgency Sombra thanked him and headed off towards the castle. Insurgency Thorax was about to pick up Chrysalis, when his brother walked up to him.
"There's something I don't understand. You may have copied Sombra's look, but she was using his love for Celestia to track him down. You couldn't copy his feelings. What was that about?" Insurgency Thorax laughed nervously.
"You heard what Sombra said, I need to get her back to HQ. See ya later, Pharinx." he said, before running away, leaving his brother staring after him in suspicion.
The battle at the castle was still raging on when Insurgency Sombra arrived. He had a hard time saying out of sight, but fortunately everypony seemed to be too preoccupied with with their current opponents to notice him.
He started looking around for Regime Twilight and after a few moments, he noticed her tussling with the main world ponies in the air. Currently, she was flying around with a lasso around her horn, dragging Applejack with her, before spinning around a couple times and throwing the farmpony at Rainbow Dash. The two collided in the air and crashed into the ground, right in front of Insurgency Sombra.
"Are you OK?" he asked as he helped them up. Rainbow Dash scoffed.
"Oh, yeah. Never better. We were just thrown out of the air by a crazed, all powerful alicorn. No biggie." Before Insurgency Sombra could reply, he saw Regime Blueblood and Regime Spitfire heading their way. The two mares scoffed, not sure if they were ready for another fight, but Insurgency Sombra stepped forward.
"I'll handle those two. Go and help Cadence wear down Twilight as much as you can." they didn't even stop to respond before heading off. The Regime ponies tried to go after them, but Insurgency Sombra blocked their path. "You'll have to go through me first." they looked at each other, than back at Insurgency Sombra.
"As you wish."
"No problem."
Insurgency Sombra ran out of the castle courtyard and looked back to see the two Regimers chasing him. He managed to lure them away, but he didn't know what to do now. As he was running, he noticed an abandoned box of rockets laying around on the ground, probably left there by Regime troops who had to abandon their post to deal with the changeling disturbances.
Insurgency Sombra silently thanked the creator as be took the box and ignited the rockets with his horn and they flew out of the box towards his pursuers. Some of them hit Regime Blueblood in the face and chest, blasting him away and knocking him out, but Regime Spitfire simply dodged all of them in the air. Insurgency Sombra didn't even have time to curse before the Pegasus reached him and kicked him into a wall with both backlegs.
"Did you really expect that to work? The Wonderbolts do this kind of thing for a living!" she boasted. Insurgency Sombra slowly got up and glared at her.
"Why are you doing this, Spitfire? Twilight took away your place in the Wonderbolts. You're nothing but a goon to her! If you left her and joined us, we could help you restore your former glory." Regime Spitfire just rolled her eyes.
"Argh, not this again!" she groaned. "As I told Thunderlane, shove your offer where the sun doesn't shine! I may not be happy with my position within the Regime, but I like Equestria how it is right now. We finally have a leader who can get things done. Besides, I finally seemed to have gained favor with Twilight after saving Flurry Heart in the Statue Garden. I'm sure bringing her your head will improve my station even further." she grinned, much to Insurgency Sombra's horror.
"What happened to you, Spitfire. Did Soarin's death really affect you this much?" Regime Spitfire's eyes narrowed into a frightening glare as she threw herself at Insurgency Sombra.
"Don't mention his name, traitor!" she shouted in fury. "He was ten times the stallion you'll ever be! I lost him because of Celestia's incompetence! That won't happen again!"
"I'm sure he would be absolutely thrilled with you right now." Insurgency Sombra said sarcastically while dodging her attacks.
"He would agree!" Regime Spitfire screamed. "I'm doing this for him! He wouldn't turn his back on me! He wouldn't turn away from me!"
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Insurgency Sombra had officially given up on Regime Spitfire at this point. She had obviously picked her side. And that meant he could stop holding back. Regime Spitfire was too quick for him to hit, so he settled for a different approach. "From Wonderbolts captain to Twilight's lackey. You've surely come a long way, Spitfire." he spat. Regime Spitfire narrowed her eyes and increased the ferocity of her attacks.
"Shut up!" she yelled, punching at him even harder. But due her furious state, she didn't even notice that she was only hitting a barrier.
"An embarrassment to the Wonderbolts and an embarrassment to the Regime too."
"Shut! Up!"
"And an embarrassment to your partner's memory."
"SHUT UP!" Regime Spitfire punched him as hard as she could, but the only thing she accomplished with this was injuring her hoof. She cried out in pain as she hugged her hoof to her chest and then Insurgency Sombra simply punched her lights out.
"And an embarrassment to Equestria." he was about to turn around and head back to the castle to find Regime Twilight, but he was met with another magic blast to the face, which he couldn't block since he already dispersed his barrier. He managed to stay on his hooves looked up to see Regime Rarity standing in front of him.
"I never wanted to believe Twilight when she said that you of all ponies work for the Insurgency! I can't imagine why somepony of your station would turn on the Empress!" Insurgency Sombra narrowed his eyes at the white unicorn.
"I couldn't just sit back and let Twilight herd all of Equestria like sheep! I'm surprised you could, Rarity."
"Twilight only wants what's best for us!"
"We are not her playthings! And she's no god! Now if you really want what's best for Equestria, step aside and let me deal with her!" in response, Regime Rarity just blasted him again. Insurgency Sombra blocked this time, but he realized that he already used up too much of his energy. And he still needed additional magic to teleport the two Celestias and Shining Armor off that train. He needed to end this quickly.
Regime Rarity blasted him again, but this time instead of blocking, he actually used a counterspell that threw her attack straight back at her. Regime Rarity wasn't expecting this and she ended up bieng knocked back by her own attack leaving her moaning on the ground in pain. Insurgency Sombra was about to make sure she stays down, but then he heard a train whistle from the distance.
This was the signal. The train was about to get in range for him to get his ponies off of it. He turned to do just that, but before he could, he saw a purple blur dash into the train's direction above him. He immediately knew that it was Regime Twilight and the realization made him panic. If she learned that the attack on the castle was just a diversion, that meant his plan was also in danger. He had to act as quickly as possible.
"Well, may fortune favor the foalish." he sighed. He quickly performed the teleportation spell, then he used every bit of magical energy he had left to charge up his armor and unleashed an almighty cry.
"TWILIGHT! YOUR TIME IS OVER!"
Apparently his call had the desired effect, as shortly after the train in the distance came to a screeching halt, Regime Twilight flew out of it and headed straight towards him. This was it. It was now or never. Insurgency Sombra charged up the armor, he channeled every bit of his magic into his horn, recited his wife's spell in his head and...
...and then he felt a surge of electric shock tear through his body, causing him to scream in pain as the power crystals in his armors overloaded and exploded and his body burned everywhere. The cause of his suffering was Regime Rarity who managed to recover and saw Insurgency Sombra about to attack Regime Twilight and decided to intervene. The shockwaves around Insurgency Sombra's body only ended when Regime Twilight came crashing down on him and shoved him into the ground. The Empress of Magic glared down at the wounded unicorn who was groaning in pain and coughing up blood.
"I knew it." she snarled. "I knew you would never betray Celestia! Finally you give me a reason to put an end to your manipulations" Insurgency Sombra couldn't help but chuckle humorlessly. Form what he discovered about his main world counterpart, manipulation was something he excelled at. It seemed like they did have at least one thing in common.
"If you want to see a betrayer so bad, your majesty, look in a mirror." he scoffed up at the alicorn before coughing some more. Regime Twilight glared down at her, then lifted him up with her magic.
"My rule brought peace!" she argued, sounding like she was trying to convince herself rather than Insurgency Sombra, but by that point he was far too gone to care who it was.
"Your peace... Your peace... changed you too much." the reference was vague, but Regime Twilight still got it. And suffice to say, she wasn't happy about it. She used her forelegs to crush Insurgency Sombra's neck, which took longer than it normally would have due to the alicorn pill, but eventually, the unicorn's neck did give in with a sickening crunch and she let go of his lifeless body, allowing it to fall on the ground.
Regime Twilight smirked in satisfaction as she looked down at him. She felt good. She finally managed to get rid Insurgency Celestia's inside pony. Another step to finally end the Insurgency. But as she was about to leave the scene, she heard some civilian ponies around her who witnessed what she did and they didn't sound too pleased about it.
"Did the Empress just kill Sombra?"
"Sombra would never threaten Equestria! Why would she?"
"How could Twilight do this?!"
Regime Twilight tried to ignore their voices, but as more and more ponies gathered around to discuss what just happened.
"Did she do it just to spite Celestia?"
"This is horrible! He was one Equestria's greatest ponies!"
Regime Twilight shut her eyes and covered her ears to try and shut them out, but they just kept coming.
"Is this our Empress who's supposed to protect us?"
"Murderer!"
"Are we sure the Insurgents are the bad guys in this war?"
"ENOUGH!" Regime Twilight screamed before spreading her wings and taking off into the sky, leaving behind a stunned crowd, including Regime Rarity. The white unicorn stared at the retreating form of her Empress in shock. She had seen her do some pretty extreme things since she took over, but at least her previous victims had trial before they were executed. What Regime Twilight just did was flat-out murder. A line that Regime Rarity expected she still wouldn't cross. She looked back down at Insurgency Sombra's corpse in horror. Sweet Faust, when was this nightmare going to stop?
Insurgency Celestia made her way back to the labs of the Insuregncy's HQ, eager to see if her husband made it back alright after getting them off the train. Shining Armor has already taken the main world's Celestia to the infirmary and Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Cadence immediately made their ways to her once they arrived back. The survivors have all made it back. Casualties have been... acceptable. But the one survivor Insurgency Celestia wanted to see the most was nowehere to be found. She only found Starlight Glimmer sitting at a table, looking rather grim.
"Starlight, where is my husband?" the unicorn looked up at Insurgency Celestia sadly and gave her the letter she got from Insurgency Sombra. Insurgency Celestia was confused, but she opened it anyway and instantly realized her husband's hoofwriting.
My dearest Celestia,
If you're reading this, that means I have made the ultimate sacrifice for Equestria, it's ponies and most of all, for you, my love. I know you will be furious with me once you read this letter and also heartbroken to learn I am gone. But in your heart, you will come to realize that it was the right thing to do.
I have found a way to fix your anti-alicorn device and make it operable against Twilight. I knew that if I told you. you would insist on using it yourself. I know how stubborn you can be more than anypony. But I couldn't let you do that. Equestria and the Insurgency need you. Mort than they need me. And Twilight had become too powerful. I had to do this or die trying. But deep inside, I think I've already accepted that it's gonna be the latter. But if I'm going to die, I'll do it happily knowing that my death protected you.
I'm sorry for everything we missed out on. I'm sorry I never fulfilled your greatest desire and made you a mother. I'm sorry for these past five years where we could not be together without having to worry about being ambushed by Regime death squads. And I'm sorry I had to leave you like this, by deceiving you and not even saying goodbye. We all knew this would happen one day, the curse of your immortality, but I'm sorry it had to be like this.
Please, grant me my last request and be strong for me. Move on. Win this war and create a new Equestria better than ever before, because if anypony can do it, it's you. And once you're done, be there for everypony like you always were and find somepony who will fill in the void I have left in your heart. I couldn't ask you to mourn me forever, I could not rest knowing that you did. I have had a wonderful life with you and I don't regret a minute of it. All I regret is not being there in the moment of your triumph.
I bid you farewell now, my love. I must go now. My body may be gone, but my soul will always belong to you. Your forever loving husband, Sombra.
Insurgency Celestia felt like the world faded around her. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to scream in rage at Insurgency Sombra's betrayal. She wanted to punch something. She wanted to find somepony to blame for this. But in the end, there was only one thing she could do. Strangely enough, she didn't do this in a while. She could resist this when Canterlot was destroyed, she could resist this when her most faithful follower and loyal student tried to kill her and she could resist this when her sister turned on her and became Nightmare Moon again. But this was now too much. In the first time in over five years, Insurgency Celestia cried. Her husband may have believed that she was going to win this war, but frankly, she wasn't so confident in that anymore.
Chapter 10: Regime Fluttershy
Things were getting out of control for the Equestrian Magical Regime. Even the most hardcore of it's supporters realized that by now. After Empress Twilight killed Insurgency Sombra in cold blood, the Regimers believed that with Insurgency Celestia's inside pony gone, they will finally deliver the blow that will completely break the Insurgency. But they underestimated just how well liked Insurgency Sombra was within the ponies of Equestria. And they didn't take his murder well.
Instead of stabilizing their power in Canterlot after the insurgent attack, many of the ponies in the city actually outright revolted after what Regime Twilight did and soon enough, disturbances and outright riots erupted in the city. Even the Regime troops in full force had a hard time keeping order. The leaders actually saw it better to retreat into the Empress' Castle of Friendship to plan their next move.
Regime Twilight was sitting on her throne, deep in thought, while Regime Rianbow Dash, Regime Starlight, Regime Trixie, Regime Blueblood, Regime Spitfire and Regime Nightmare Moon were standing in a circle in the middle of the room, discussing what they should do now. While they all had different ideas about their next move, they all agreed on one thing: These doppelgängers had to be dealt with.
"We have been tolerating the presence of these doppelgängers for far too long!" Regime Nightmare Moon seethed. Regime Blueblood nodded.
"Ever since they arrived, everything we've built in the past years to maintain peace, order and security has fallen apart."
"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but Blueblood's right." Regime Rainbow Dash added. "Celestia will have to wait. It's time to take out the thrash and buck these doppelgängers back to whatever screwed up, lawless alternate world they came from!" the others all agreed with her. They looked over to Regime Twilight to see what she had to say about this, but they received no word from her. The Empress was completely silent, still in her thoughts. The other ponies in the room weren't sure if they should disturb her. Finally, Regime Rainbow Dash broke the silence.
"Uh... Twilight? Is everything OK?" Regime Twilight still ignored her. She just kept staring ahead of herself with a bitter expression. Finally she spoke, but it was more like she was talking to herself rather the than the pony who just addressed her.
"I made them safe! Shielded them!" she said on a low voice, barely above a whisper. "I created them an Equestria where they can live in true harmony and sleep at night without having to worry about some monster dragging them out of their beds to do Faust knows what to them! But are they grateful? Do they appreciate my protection? NO!" Regime Twilight slammed down her hooves in anger, making the other ponies in the room jump." They whine, complain! And side with those terrorists!" Regime Twilight fumed in rage for a few moments before she managed to calm herself and looked back at her followers with a look that made them all realize that whatever she's going to say next, it's gonna spell trouble for somepony.
"But if they would rather have chaos and destruction, let nopony say that Twilight Sparkle doesn't listen to her subjects!" she walked up to the others and stood between them. "Canterlot and Ponyville, I'll flatten them!" Regime Twilight slammed her hoof on the ground to emphasize the point. "Set an example! And then, these doppelgängers are next! I'm finding the mirror universe they came from and make them pay for meddling with my affairs."
The ponies around her didn't comment on her plan. They felt unsure about how to feel about it actually, but somepony else in the room wasn't shy to make their opinion known.
"Now, hold on a second, darling." Regime Twilight turned around to see Regime Rarity, who just entered the room along with Regime Applejack and Regime Fluttershy. "You... You want to destroy entire cities? And then invade another universe?" the white unicorn asked incredulously. Regime Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Is there a problem, Rarity?" the Empress asked. Regime Rarity narrowed her eyes and walked up to her.
"As a matter of fact, there is! The whole point of this Regime was to protect Equestria and save it's ponies from any threat! How are we protecting Equestria when we ourselves become one of those very threats?" Regime Rainbow Dash stepped forward in an attempt to prevent Rarity from invoking the anger of the Empress even more than she already had.
"Rarity, you have seen firsthand what happens when we let events unfold on their own without controlling them. Without order, Equestria will fall apart! We have to preserve that order and if that means cracking a few heads to make ponies listen, I'd say so be it!" Regime Rarity couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Do you even hear what you say?!" she screamed. "We can't just slaughter thousands to get a point across! Have you gone insane?"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Regime Twilight hollered on the royal Canterlot voice. "I didnt ask for your opinion, Rarity! I told you what we were going to do!" But Regime Rarity didn't back down.
"What you were going to do, perhaps! But I refuse to take part in this madness! Why, if your parents and poor Spikey-wikey could see you now, they would..." Regime Rarity never got to finish that sentence. She found herself being lifted into the air by Regime Twilight's magic and towards the Empress. She tried to fight it, but Regime Twilight was just too powerful.
She brought Regime Rarity face to face with her and lit up her horn. Two purple magical beams were shot out of it, which went straight through Regime Rarity's eyes. For the next few seconds, all that was heard throughout the room was a sickening, sizzling sound as Regime Twilight fried the insides of the unicorn's head. Finally, she broke her spell and the lifeless body of Regime Rarity fell on the ground with two smoking empty holes in the places where her eyes used to be and her mouth open in a silent scream. Regime Twilight then turned to the other ponies in the room.
"Any other objections?" Nopony in the room dared to raise their voice, fearing that they would be the next to suffer the wrath of the Empress of Magic. Satisfied with the silence, Regime Twilight then handed out the instructions.
"Starlight, Trixie, contact every equestrian newspapers and give them full media coverage. I want everypony to know about this. Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Blueblood, you're with me. Nightmare Moon, prepare the troops. I want them to be ready by sunset. Applejack, Fluttershy, get Tirek ready. We're taking him out on a test drive." she shot one last, dismissive look at Regime Rarity's body. "And somepony clean that up."
Regime Twilight left the room with her followers in tow, except for Regime Fluttershy and Regime Applejack who stayed behind and gathered around Regime Rarity's body. Neither of them could say a word. They both knew Regime Twilight wasn't holding back anymore, but they never expected that she would even hurt one of her closest friends, let alone kill them. Regime Applejack turned back to Regime Big Mac who's been standing in the corner of the room.
"Could you take her outside, Big Mac? We'll... We'll give her a proper burial once we're done tomorrow." she said quietly. Regime Big Mac just gave her his signature "Eeyup" before the two mares lifted the body onto his back. Regime Fluttershy gave the deceased unicorn one last, sad look before the stallion carried her out. Regime Applejack then walked up to her and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"Come on, sugarcube. We have a job to do." she began walking away, but Regime Fluttershy didn't follow her. "Fluttershy?" Regime Fluttershy stayed quiet for a few moments. She knew for a while that Regime Rarity was having second thoughts about this whole thing. They have been following Regime Twilight because they believed she was right at first. But everything that was happening now? Regime Twilight killed one of her best friends in cold blood, they were preparing to destroy two cities including their hometown, slaughtering innocent civilians and invading another universe. None of this was right. Regime Fluttershy finally made up her mind.
"She was right. This isn't what we signed up for." she said with a firm, determined look that Regime Applejack didn't see on the yellow pegasus in a long time. It greatly surprised the orange mare.
"We all knew what we're signin' up for, Shy." Regime Applejack argued. "Friendship and harmony are no longer enough. We need to make tough choices to protect Equestria from her enemies." Regime Fluttershy turned to glare at her.
"Was Rarity an enemy of Equestria?" she asked, whispering sharply. Regime Applejack couldn't meet her eyes.
"She was..." Regime Applejack was not sure how to answer. "A casualty of war. Acceptable loss." Regime Fluttershy couldn't believe the Applejack she knew just said those words.
"Acceptable?!" Regime Fluttershy yelled, making Regime Applejack back away. "She was our friend! And she helped saving Equestria on numerous occasions! If you still believe that rubbish, you're even more deluded than I thought!"
Neither mares talked for a while. Regime Applejack just looked down in shame and regret. Regime Fluttershy could tell that she was struggling too, but was too afraid to speak her mind. Especially after witnessing Regime Rarity's fate.
"If you wanna spend the rest of your life blindly serving Twilight out of fear, that's your business. But I'm not doing this anymore!" she then tore the Regime symbol off of her dress and threw it on the ground. "I'm done." she began walking away towards the exit, but Regime Applejack pulled her back.
"Whoa there, sugarcube! You wanna follow Rarity to the grave? There is no done with the Empress!" Regime Fluttershy's determined glare didn't falter.
"Maybe not for you." she rebuffed, pushing Regime Applejack's hoof off of her shoulder. "Goodbye, Applejack." she resumed her walk towards the exit, but Regime Applejack beat her to it. She ran up to the door and slammed it shut right in front of Regime Fluttershy.
"Ya didn' think ah'll just let ya waltz outta here, did ya?!" she asked with a glare, before her face softened and started slowly approaching Regime Fluttershy. "Come on, Shy! Just calm down an' follow me. We can forget this little outburst ever happened and just carry on." but Regime Fluttershy was having none of it.
"You're very good at that, aren't you? You just forget things and carry on. Like how you forgot what Twilight did to your family and carrying on being her yes-mare, isn't that right, Applejack?" Regime Applejack shot her a dark glare.
"Don't ya put that on me, ya hear?!" she yelled in her face, poking her chest with a hoof. Regime Fluttershy returned the glare.
"Well, you know what, Applejack? Forget this!" she then raised her forehoof and punched Regime Applejack across the face with surprising strength. It made her stagger back a little, but she quickly regained her balance.
"Fine! Ya asked for it!" Regime Applejack
"You didn't give me a choice, Applejack." she was sad that it had come to this, but finally realized that what they were doing is wrong and if Regime Applejack wasn't going to acknowledge that, then that's her choice. She was about to head out of the castle when she bumped into Regime Big Mac. The massive stallion gave the pegasus a questioning look, not sure what to make of her walking away from his sister's unconscious body. Regime Fluttershy gulped. This was just what she didn't need.
"Oh, hello, Big Macintosh." she smiled nervously. "You're probably wondering why Applejack is lying on the floor, looking so bruised. Well, you see... It's the effect of one of Celestia's spells she suffered while she fought her on the train. The effects came out very... late and she... was hurt and I was taking her to the infirmary... and... you're not buying this, are you?" Regime Big Mac narrowed his eyes the her.
"Nope."
"Yeah, figured as much." Regime Fluttershy turned around to fly away, but after a few seconds, she noticed that she was just hovering in one place despite flapping her wings like crazy. She looked around to see Regime Bic Mac holding down her tail with his hoof. Regime Fluttershy reached back to free her tail, pulling with all of her might, then Regime Big Mac just lifted his hoof and the pegasus flew all the way across the room, crashing into a wall.
"Oh, sometimes I wish I was born an earth pony." she wailed. Regime Big Mac slowly approached her menacingly as she crawled backwards on the floor in fear. She started looking around for anything that might help her out and she noticed a large crystal chandelier hanging over the room. As Regime Big Mac got closer, Regime Fluttershy knew what she had to do.
"I'm sorry, Big Macintosh. I know you can't help yourself. Twilight is controlling you, but I have to do this." she then kicked the wall behind her, causing a crack to appear in it, which spread upwards to the ceiling until it reached the chandelier, which fell right on top of the approaching stallion. He didn't even have time to react, merely look up and make a dejected face as he realized what was about to happen.
"I'm sorry, Big Mac." Regime Fluttershy said, patting the head of the unconscious stallion in sympathy. "I will help you get free. But first, I gotta get out of here." The guards probably heard the crash and were on their way to investigate. Regime Fluttershy needed to get out as fast as possible.
A minute later, Regime Fluttershy was already soaring the night sky, but she wasn't sure what she should do now. It was one thing to defect from the Regime, but the bigger question was where should she go. The obvious choice was finding the insurgents, but she had no idea where to look for them. She heard some rumors among the Regime troops that said that the Empress managed to locate them using the samples of the other Celestia they captured. If that was the case, that information could have only been stored at one place: the royal archives. Regime Fluttershy didn't know if those rumors had any merit, but at the moment, it was her best call.
So she flew towards the castle, which was still badly damaged from the insurgent attack at dawn. She expected security to be tight, but since the only Regimers who knew about her change of heart will be unconscious for a while, she didn't worry about being seen. She landed in the courtyard and was about to enter the building when she heard a voice.
"You are about to embark on a heroic mission to restore peace and security to our beloved homeland!" she quickly recognized the voice as Regime Nightmare Moon. The alicorn was standing on a podium in front of a battalion of assembled Regime troopers. "Before me, stand the best and bravest soldiers Equestria has to offer! It falls to us to enforce the values that the Equestrian Magical Regime was built upon! Order, obedience, control!" Regime Fluttershy rolled her eyes.
"And I thought Rainbow Dash loved to hear herself talk."
"But those who would oppose the will of our Empress will be treated as traitors and enemies of the state! And will be executed without mercy!" Regime Fluttershy didn't like where this was going. She saw a few of insurgent ponies being carried to the courtyard and lined up in front of the Regime troops.
"Executioners, assemble!" Regime Nightmare Moon ordered and a group of unicorns stepped forward. They ignited their horns and were about to blast the prisoners, but Regime Fluttershy quickly intervened.
"Not on my watch! Not anymore!" she flew to the middle of the courtyard and started flying around in circles as fast as she could. She whirled up a small dust cloud that blinded the executioners before flying over the prisoners and untying them.
"Get out of here! Now!" they didn't need to be told twice. The wall of the courtyard was still demolished from the attack, so they could escape easily. Regime Fluttershy was about to disappear as well, but when she turned around, she found herself facing Regime Nightmare Moon herself. The dark alicorn trapped Regime Fluttershy in a telekinetic grip and twirled her around in the air a few times before throwing her away.
The pegasus ended up flying all the way to the Everfree Forest and landed with a big crash that hurt like Tartarus. She could barely manage to get herself together and stand up before Regime Nightmare Moon descended down in front of her.
"As I said, traitors will be executed without mercy. And from what I gather, you have just turned a traitor, Fluttershy. Considering the Insurgency is about to be crushed, this seems like poor timing on your part." Regime Fluttershy glared back at her.
"For once, you're right. I should have done that a lot sooner!" Regime Fluttershy threw herself at the dark alicorn, who obviously didn't expect poor, timid Fluttershy to make the first move in a fight, let alone fight so aggressively. She didn't even have time to counter with a spell. So she decided to get physical as well. She tried to stab Regime Fluttershy with her horn and the pegasus was so hard on the offensive that she could hardly notice the attack in time. She could barely get out of the way in time, but the horn still managed to scratch her.
Regime Fluttershy screamed in pain and collapsed on the ground. Regime Nightmare Moon stood over the wounded pegasus and pressed her horn against her throat.
"Any last words, traitor?" Regime Nightmare Moon snarled.
"Just three." Regime Fluttershy smirked slightly. "Angel, help mommy!"
"What?" the alicorn frowned in confusion. The next second, she felt a sharp pain in her flank as a pair of teeth were sunk into it and she looked back to see a small, white rabbit nibbling on her backside.
"GET OFF OF ME YOU PEST!" Regime Nightmare Moon screamed as she tried to blast Angel Bunny off of her, but all she accomplished was burning her flank. "OW! You'll pay for that!" Angel just blew her a raspberry as he started jumping around on her body, making her thrash around wildly to get him. Regime Fluttershy took advantage of this and ran over to a large tree which had a big hole in it. She whistled over to Angel Bunny and pointed at the tree.
The rabbit quickly understood what his owner was planning and jumped over to the hole and patted his behind to taunt Regime Nightmare Moon. The alicorn blew steam out of her nose and was so mad that she forgot about her magic and just flew straight ahead to catch the rabbit. Angel quickly jumped away and Regime Nightmare Moon ended up getting stuck in the hole. Regime Fluttershy flew behind her and kicked her deeper into the tree, before picking up the bunny and giving him a tight hug.
"Oh, Angel, I missed you so much! Thank you..." however, the feeling apparently wasn't mutual as the rabbit gave his owner a stern glare with folded arms. Regime Fluttershy instantly knew what the problem was.
"I know, Angel, I made a huge mistake joining the Regime, I realize that now. But I want to make things right. Will you help me?" Angel raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'What's in it for me?' Regime Fluttershy sighed.
"I'll give you all the carrots you want!" Angel held out a paw and made upwards motions with it.
"And I'll brush you two times everyday."
Another upwards gesture.
"Three times?"
And another.
"And I'll get you that heated carrot shaped bunny bed you always wanted." At this, the rabbit finally gave in. "Oh, thank you, Angel! Mommy loves you so much!" Angel pretended to be annoyed, but a slight amused smirk could be seen on his face. He also missed Regime Fluttershy. The pegasus than placed the rabbit on her head. "Now let's go! We need to find the insurgents to warn them." Angel then pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to her.
"What's this?" her eyes lit up as she read it. It was Regime Twilight's orders for Regime Nightmare Moon, which instructed her to lead an attack on the Insurgent base, along with it's exact location. "Good work, Angel! Let's go!" she then took off faster then she ever did before.
At the Insurgency's HQ, Shining Armor was trying on an armored suit that the Insurgents started using recently, with Cadence watching him. When Shining Armor finished putting on the armor, he turned to his wife.
"What do you say, honey? Does your husband look as gallant and strong as usual?" Cadence just rolled her eyes with a smirk.
"You look fine, Shiny, besides you know I prefer it when your out of armor." she said huskily with a wink. Shining Armor blushed and rubbed the back off his head sheepishly.
"Cady, we're in the middle of a war. I don't think this is a good time." Cadence walked up to him and wrapped her forelegs around him.
"How about we fight a little battle of our own in the meantime." she was about to kiss him, when they were interrupted by a crash. They jumped apart and looked up to see Regime Fluttershy fly in.
"Uh... did we also bring over our Fluttershy?" Shining asked dumbfounded. Cadence glared at the yellow pegasus.
"I don't recall it."
"Then this bad news." Shining growled. "Go get Celestia."
"Which one?"
"The one from this world! I'll handle this!" Cadence ran off to do as his husband said and the stallion went to confront Regime Fluttershy. She was obviously taken aback about seeing the stallion who's been long dead in this world. "What's wrong, Fluttershy? You look like you've seen a ghost." he asked tauntingly.
"Yeah, that about sums it up." she replied casually. "Where's Celestia? My Celestia to be precise. I need to talk to her!"
"She's out somewhere, not being a murderer!" Shining spat. Regime Fluttershy shrank back.
"I realized something like this was probably coming my way." she sighed. "Look, I'm not here to fight, I'm here to help." Shining raised an eyebrow.
"Well, forgive my skepticism. Ever since I arrived to this world you're friends have been trying to kill us!"
"I'm no longer with them! I know we... they've been taking things too far. But I want to make things right."
"Well, good luck with that. If you think I'm letting one of you Regimers anywhere near my friends and my wife, you have another thing coming!" Shining lit up his horn and was about to attack, but then, he felt a hoof on his shoulder.
"Shining Armor, that is enough." Insurgency Celestia spoke softly. Shining was hesitant to give in, but the alicorn out on a firmer expression and voice. "At ease, soldier!" this finally made him stand down. Insurgency Celestia stepped forward and looked down at Regime Fluttershy who cowered in front of the former princess. "Fluttershy, what a surprise. Although, I can't exactly say, a pleasant one."
"I... I..." Regime Fluttershy tried to talk, but nothing came out. In the end, she simply broke down in tears and could only utter two words. "I'm sorry." she cried. Insurgency Celestia just stared at her for a couple of moments, before doing something that shocked everypony in the room. She opened her hooves for an embrace. The crying pegasus threw herself into the embrace and cried. Cried for the mistakes of the past five years and for what she knew was about to come.
After the dust has settled, the ponies gathered around the table in the war room and listened as Regime Fluttershy turned Insurgency Fluttershy filled them in on what Regime Twilight was planning. They could hardly believe their ears.
"Rarity... She... She killed her?" Applejack asked in horror. She knew this was not the Rarity she knew and loved from her world, but it was still almost a soul-crushing revelation. Shining Armor was even more reviled.
"This... This is insane! I... I can't believe she would do this. Not Twily." he wondered if he would ever be able to look at his Twilight in the same way ever again after what he's seen in this world. Insurgency Fluttershy could only look at her in compassion and sorrow.
"Believe it. By morning, Ponyville and Canterlot will be wiped off of the face of the planet. And then she is going after your world." The other ponies could only stare in stunned silence. Insurgency Celestia was the first one who found her voice.
"I knew she went off the deep end but even I wouldn't have expected this." she lamented. Regime Twilight has become a bigger threat than Nightmare Moon, Discord and Chrysalis combined. No matter how many times she witnessed just how much her former student had fallen, it never started hurting any less.
"This has gone on long enough!" Rainbow Dash yelled, slamming her hooves on the table. "We have to stop her!" All the ponies around the table shared her opinion. They looked at each other with determined looks on their faces. They all knew that this was going to be Insurgency's last stand against the Regime. Everything will be decided at dawn.
Insurgency Celestia was deeply touched by their devotion. She saw that they were all ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for a world that wasn't even their own. But she knew that this was something she couldn't possibly ask of them. With a heavy heart, she knew she had to turn them away.
"No." she said bluntly, making everypony in the room turn to her. "I have to stop her or die trying. I cannot possibly ask you to throw your lives away for a world that's not even your own."
"Don't ya give us that!" Applejack snapped. "Ah did not become an element of harmony by walking away from world threatening disasters!"
"Neither did I!" Rainbow Dash added. "We're in this together! Until the end!"
"I made an oath to keep Equestria and all of it's ponies safe and I'm sure my counterpart did too." Shining Armor joined in. "The fact that this is another Equestria and not mine makes no difference! He can't be here to fight this battle, I will have to do it in his name."
"Sombra sacrificed himself to free Equestria from Twilight's oppression!" Cadance joined in with the same level of determination as her husband. "We're not going to dishonor that by leaving!"
"I told you already! I'll help anyway I can!" Starlight exclaimed. "The fact that this is not our Equestria won't stop me from doing what's right!" But Insurgency Celestia just shook her head.
"I appreciate your devotion, but my answer is still no. I brought you here to get my anti-alicorn device and that plan failed. I'm sending you home and then I'll destroy every document of my interuniversal traveling spell. Also, our crystal mirror was destroyed along with Canterlot five years ago so you won't have to worry about her following her through that either." the other ponies didn't look convinced.
"Do you think that's going to stop her from coming over?" Shining Armor asked. "You of all ponies should know that once Twilight sets her mind on something, no force in Heaven or Equus will be able to stop her. She will find another way!"
"Of course it won't stop her." Insurgency Celestia shook her head sadly. "But it will buy you time to prepare." the main world ponies weren't having any of it.
"And what about you?!" Rainbow Dash asked. "You cannot face the entire Regime alone. Especially in your depowered state. You'll need us." Insurgency Celestia remained silent for a few seconds before answering.
"Contrary to popular belief, even Princess Celestia isn't invincible. I cannot win every battle. I have been fighting for years. Perhaps my time has come to finally make my final stand and give my life for Equestria." she replied on a hopeless tone. Nopony around her could say anything. This was not the Celestia they knew. Clearly her years of fighting the Regime have finally gotten to her. But nopony was more stunned by her words than her counterpart from the main world. Princess Celestia was silent until now, but she decided that this was the part where she could no longer hold her voice.
"Princess Celestia does not speak like that." she admonished her counterpart sternly. Insurgency Celestia just looked at her dryly.
"I'm not exactly a princess anymore in case you didn't get the memo."
"That doesn't matter!" Princess Celestia replied firmly. "I may still not fully understand this world, but there are still millions of ponies out there who are counting on you and the Insurgency to fight for them! You cannot let them down! Princess or not, Celestia does not succumb even to death as long as there are ponies in Equestria to protect!" Insurgency Celestia's mood didn't change.
"And how would you have me do that?" she asked dully. "Like Rainbow Dash said, I cannot fight the Regime by myself. Even with all of you and the Insurgency, we're still badly outnumbered. And with Twilight's depowering spell, we can't fight her on equal grounds." But Princess Celestia had a solution to that.
"We may not. But I know somepony who can." this got everypony's attention in the room. "I have come to realize that the magical effects of this world are affecting us in correspondence with our counterparts. Twilight's depowering spell has taken it's hold on both me and Cadence, but there is somepony Twilight can't use it on without a drawback: herself. More specifically, her counterpart from our world. If we bring her over, the Empress Twilight can't use that spell without also significantly weakening herself. She is the key of finishing this fight." the ponies around her seemed to like that idea, except for Insurgency Celestia, who quite understandably had strong reservations about it.
"One Twilight Sparkle in this world is enough." she told her counterpart sharply.
"Hey!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "Our Twilight is nothing like your Empress!" she knew Insurgency Celestia didn't mean to offend her Twilight, but it was in her nature to defend any of her friends.
"She's right, Celestia." Cadence added on a more reassuring tone. "You shouldn't let your emotions cloud your judgement. Especially not when so much is at stake."
Before Insurgency Celestia could reply, the room was shook by a deafening explosion as the walls crumbled. The room was soon filled with ponies wearing dark blue military suits and black ski masks with a white skull painted over them and they were also carrying strange looking weapons in their forehooves. Insurgency Celestia widened her eyes and took a step back when she recognized them. An action that didn't go unnoticed by her allies.
"I take it you know these guys." Rainbow Dash said nervously as the ponies in front of them pointed their weapons at them.
"Exterminators. The Regime's elite death squads." Insurgency Celestia explained. "Armed with Twilight's revolutionary new weapons called firearms. They kill instantly."
"So why aren't they killing us?" asked Shining Armor.
"They're like dogs. Only attacking on order." Insurgency Celestia sneered with disgust.
"Don't worry, Celestia. I don't keep my clients waiting for long." said a female voice. The Exterminators stepped aside and a pegasus pony stepped forward, removing her mask to reveal Regime Lightning Dust.
"You!" sneered Rainbow Dash. Regime Lightning Dust smirked triumphantly.
"I still hate my Rainbow Dash just as much as always, but since she's my superior now, I can't take a shot at her. So I will have to settle for you, but if it's any consolation, I will enjoy killing you just as much as if you were my Dash." she then aimed her rifle at the blue pegasus. "FIRE!"
The Exterminators all started shooting, but Insurgency Celestia raised a magical barrier around her allies that protected them from the bullets.
"Shockwave! Now!" she yelled behind her. Princess Celestia and Cadence followed her instructions and prepared a magical shockwave that sent their enemies flying all across the room. With the Exterminators down, the insurgents ran to gather and destroy their weapons. The odds have been evened.
Rainbow Dash was about to grab a rifle, but Regime Lightning Dust was quicker and snatched it from the ground before she could. Regime Lightning turned around in the air and tried to shoot Rainbow, but the blue pegasus wasn't considered the fastest flier in Equestria for nothing. She kept dodging the bullets in the air and Regime Lightning was so preoccupied with trying to take aim at her that she couldn't keep her distance. Rainbow managed to catch up with her and grab her weapon. She tore it out of Regime Lightning's grasp and bashed her in the face with it. Regime Lightning crashed into the floor and when she got up, she saw Rainbow Dash aiming her own rifle at her.
"How's it feel to be on the other side of the instant death weapon?" she asked mockingly. But Regime Lightning just chuckled and rolled her eyes.
"Don't make me laugh. Do you even know how to use that?" Rainbow growled. Regime Lightning just called her bluff. In the end, she decided to just break the rifle and throw it away.
"I don't need to. There are still some ponies who have the guts to face their enemies head on. What do you say Lightning? Wanna go a round in classic Wonderbolt style? For old times' sake?" Regime Lightning cracked her neck and banged her forehooves together.
"Bring it!"
The two pegasi flew at each other at full speed, resulting in a head on collision that sent a sonic blast through the room. It sent both of them into a spin in the air, but just like at the academy, Regime Lightning was faster to recover from it. She flew at Rainbow from above and slammed her into the ground. She then punched Rainbow across the face several times, before picking her up and throwing her across the room.
She then flew at Rainbow again, but the blue pegasus managed to recover enough to get out of the way. Regime Lightning's hoof hit only the floor and it got stuck. Rainbow then began to fly in circles around her, creating a mini tornado that raised Regime Lignting into the air. It was so strong that she couldn't escape it. Dash than flew up to her, grabbed her by the shoulders and spun around at an incredibly high speed before throwing Regime Lightning into the ground.
"And now, for the finishing blow..." Rainbow said, preparing for the final attack. She pulled back one of her hooves and flew down towards Regime Lightning at full speed to deliver the final hit, but when she brought her hoof forward, she was baffled to find that instead of Regime Lightning, all it hit was a cloud.
"Huh?" Rainbow stared at the cloud in confusion before turning away to look around and her eyes widened in shock. She didn't know how it was possible, but she was no longer at the Insurgency's HQ.
"I'm... I'm in Cloudsdale?!" she exclaimed in surprise. "How... how did I get here?!"
"Please don't tell me you actually believe you're fast enough to fly all the way over here from Celestia's place under a millisecond." spoke a familiar voice. Rainbow spun around, only to see Insurgency Discord chilling on a cloud. Her eyes narrowed when she saw him.
"You! I don't know what stupid game you're playing again, Discord, but I'm having none of it! Send me back to my friends right now!" Rainbow demanded. Insurgency Discord threw his hands up in an attempt to calm her.
"Whoa, whoa! Hold your horses, Dashie." he said, giggling at his own joke. "Your friends will be..." before he could finish, Rainbow flew up to him and punched him across the face, much to his surprise.
"Only my friends can call me that!" she roared in his face. "Now send me back to them!" Insurgency Discord grasped his chest with a hurt expression.
"You wound me, Dash. After everything we've been through..." Rainbow just punched him in the face again.
"We?! The last time I met my Discord he was helping my world's Sombra attacking Canterlot! So forgive me if I'm..."
"WILL YOU CALM DOWN AND JUST LISTEN TO ME?!" the draconequus roared at the top of his lungs, making Rainbow back away in shock. If Discord of all creatures lost his cool, then things really were serious. Insurgency Discord rubbed his temples and did a few calming breaths before turning back to Rainbow.
"Listen, I want the same thing you and my Celestia do! To get rid of Twilight! Not only did she make my lovely chaos pretty much impossible to exist with her rule, but she's been hunting me nonstop ever since she took over. I want to help you!" he explained to Dash. Rainbow took a few moments to process everything he said before answering.
"Then why did you take me away from that fight? My friends need..."
"Your friends will be fine." Insurgency Discord interrupted. "Celestia may not be as powerful as she used to be, but she's still more than a match for Lightning Dust's little cleaner crew. Especially with another Celestia backing her up. Now, if you really want to help them win this war you'll hear me out." Rainbow still didn't like it, but she thought that if Insurgency Discord really wanted to help, she could only benefit from that.
"Fine." Rainbow gave in with a sigh. "What could be so important that you yanked me away from my friends?"
Back at the Insurgency's HQ, the skirmish between the insurgents and the exterminators were going in the favor of the former. After the beating Rainbow Dash gave her, Regime Lightning Dust couldn't keep fighting at full strength so she was forced to retreat. Without their leader, the Exterminators were easily overwhelmed and forced out of the base. But the insurgents knew that they could no longer stay hidden. The Regime knew they were hiding here and they were also attacking two cities full of innocent civilians.
"We forced them out of the base." Cadence announced. "It's over."
"No, it's not." Princess Celestia replied. "Canterlot and Ponyville are under attack. We have to take the fight to them." she then turned to her counterpart. "Don't we?" Insurgency Celestia didn't reply. She walked over to a desk and pulled a scroll.
"Ah, good." Shining Armor said with a smile. "That must be her interuniversal spell. It's time to bring over Twilight and finish this!"
"Not exactly." Insurgency Celestia responded sadly, causing everypony to look at her in surprise.
In Cloudsdale, Insurgency Discord filled Rainbow Dash in on everything he knew about Twilight's plan, but the blue pegasus wasn't impressed with the information.
"I already know what Twilight is planning!" she said to Insurgency Discord in frustration. "Your Fluttershy told us everything."
"Oh. And did she also tell you just how Twilight wants to carry out her plan?" Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" Insurgency Discord snapped his fingers and a magical screen appeared in front of the pegasus, which showed her something that made her gasp in horror. She saw her counterpart rallying this universe's Wonderbolts to join Twilight's attack on the cities. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"Faust almighty." she whispered in disbelief.
"Shocking, isn't it?" Insurgency Discord asked. "The greatest fliers in Equestria are about to fly off into a battle waged by a crazy tyrant to destroy two major equestrian cities." Rainbow needed a moment to take this in.
"I... I have seen how low our counterparts fallen in this world, but this? How could I... I mean she do this?" Insurgency Discord leaned next to her ear from behind.
"If only there was a heroic, uncorrupted version of her around to stop her and guide those poor Wonderbolts back to the right path." Rainbow Dash turned to look the draconequus in the eye.
"Why would you help us? I'm sure you would enjoy the chaos the battle would bring!" Insurgency Discord's donned an expression that Rainbow Dash never thought she would see on the his face. In her universe or any other. He almost looked... serious.
"There may chaos for a short while, but if Twilight crushes the Insurgency, nopony or any other creature will ever be able to challenge her again. Under her rule, chaos would pretty much die forever. And besides, I may enjoy some chaotic mayhem once in a while, but a war in which millions die? Slaughtering defenseless, innocent ponies? Even I draw the line there. I like to mess with ponies and at worst I may rearrange their bodyparts, but I bring chaos, not death." Rainbow Dash looked at him for a few moments. He seemed so sincere, but it was hard to tell with Discord. She never saw him like this. She didn't know how, but she just knew he was genuine.
"Thanks, Discord." she said after a while. "I... I didn't know you had it in you." Insurgency Discord chuckled.
"I do have my moments." he admitted sheepishly. This touching moment was interrupted by a flash of blue light from a few meters next to them and the two turned to see Regime Trixie appearing once the light faded. Insurgency Discord groaned.
"Oh, boy. By bringing you over here, I must have used enough magic for Twilight to be able to locate me." his expression suddenly changed to cheerful as he turned back to Dash. "Good thing I have a new, tough Pegasus buddy to take care of it! Good luck!" he then snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Regime Trixie walked towards Rainbow Dash. "Twilight sent Trixie to bring in Discord, but I'm sure she'll settle for you." she said smugly. Rainbow glared at Trixie.
"I never thought I'd see the the day when the 'Great and Powerful Trixie' is humbled into serving Twilight." Rainbow Dash mocked. Regime Trixie glared back.
"Trixie doesn't serve. Trixie observes and learns. She studies Twilight's magical powers and then replicates them. Prefects them. Until one day, she will be even greater and more powerful than Twilight herself! And then she will serve Trixie!" Rainbow Dash broke out laughing.
"You want to overpower and overthrow the most powerful alicorn in this world? I thought my Trixie was delusional, but this is a whole new level of blindness to reality!" Regime Trixie glared at her.
"Let's see you say the same after this!" Regime Trixie summoned a bunch of clouds around herself and turned them into storm clouds. Rainbow Dash realized what she was about to do and just smirked. There was no way those clouds will be able to catch up with her. She was about to take off, but instead of the clouds following her, they immediately struck her with lightning. The lightning stung her flank and she jumped up with a startled yelp. Regime Trixie smirked and continued to summon more lightning towards Rainbow.
'Me and my big mouth.' she thought as she struggled desperately to avoid the lightning bolts. 'Think, think, think, Rainbow! What to do?' She looked back at Trixie and got a sudden idea.
"Is that the best you got, Trixie? I expected more!" Regime Trixie glared and increased the number of lightning bolts attacking Rainbow. The pegasus was trying to live up to her reputation as the fastest flyer in Equestria, but she was getting tired. Her only hope was tiring out Regime Trixie before herself, but for that, she needed her to throw as many spells at her as possible.
It looked like her plan was working. It was becoming harder and harder to escape the lightning bolts. Now was the time to deliver the finishing blow.
"Come on, Trixie! Newbie weather ponies can make stronger lightning than that!" Regime Trixie gritted her teeth and used all of her remaining strength to summon as much lightning as she could. She then unleashed them all at once on Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus took full advantage of her speed. She flew at Regime Trixie just as the lightning bolts were about to fire and got out of their way in a millisecond, causing them to hit the unicorn.
Regime Trixie screamed in pain as she was electrocuted and Rainbow Dash delivered the final blow with a healthy punch to the back of the head. Regime Trixie was out before she hit the ground. Rainbow Dash dusted off her hooves in victory.
"And now that I've dealt with this arrogant, obnoxious flank, it's time to deal with an even more arrogant and obnoxious flank, me!"
Regime Rainbow Dash watched in satisfaction as the Wonderbolts lined up in front of her, ready to fly out and carry out her orders to level Canterlot. She never thought such a thing would be among their duties, but the ponies of that city brought it upon themselves.
"Are the bombs ready?" she asked an officer, a yellow pegasus mare with light blue mane.
"Yes, ma'am. Packages are wrapped and ready for delivery." she reported.
"Good. Assemble your unit, you'll lead the first attack."
But before the officer could respond, the cloud was shaken by a huge explosion, coming from the spot where the Wonderbolts gathering the bombs. They looked over to see a huge fiery inferno before a rainbow colored lightning bolted out from between the flames and landed right in front of Regime Rainbow Dash. She narrowed her eyes in a fiery glare. It was her doppelgänger.
"Sorry to break your toys, but fiery entrance from Rainbow Dash is mandatory!" she yelled.
"Get her!" Regime Rainbow snarled through gritted teeth. Rainbow Dash marched up to her with a equally fierce glare.
"Forget them, Rainbow! Come and get me yourself if you're mare enough! But considering you were about to lead the Wonderbolts to attack a city full of innocent civilians, I doubt that!"
"You don't think I'm mare enough to face you? Would you be mare enough to do what I'm about to?"
"Do you think turning on your own kind and slaughtering civilians make you a mare?!" Rainbow shrieked in disgust.
"It takes a mare to do what's necessary!" Regime Rainbow retorted. "After Canterlot, Twilight showed me the truth! True strength lies in the will to go any length to ensure peace and security to Equestria. And lasting peace can only be enforced!"
"I always hated ponies like you. Ranting and screaming about how unfair and cruel the world is and thinking that this makes them the victim and grants them the excuse to do anything! To think that me - any version of me could become such a pony makes me wanna vomit!" Main Rainbow shouted.
"You want to lecture me about my world?!"
"Oh, I'm not here to lecture you." Rainbow whispered dangerously, pounding her hooves together. "I'm just here to kick. your. flank!" she then launched herself at Regime Rainbow and uppercuted her in the chin.
Regime Rainbow flew back, but recovered in a second and flew back at Rainbow to punch her, but she caught her hoof and held it in place. She then twisted her hoof back and threw her away, before flying at her and delivering several rapid punches to Regime Rainbow's face. Regime Rainbow managed to slip away and flew off towards a cloud above Rainbow, rubbing it until it was filled with electricity and it fired at the main world pegasus. Rainbow managed to get out of the way, but Regime Rainbow used her evasive maneuver as an opening and flew straight into her, knocking her down.
Rainbow tried to get up, but her Regime counterpart landed in her stomach with both hindlegs, then kicked her away. Rainbow groaned in pain, but she couldn't let it overwhelm her. She decided to take a page out of Regime Rainbow's playbook and used the elements to her advantage. She flew up and collected a bunch of clouds together, before turning them into rainclouds and rained a huge amount of water at her opponent. While it didn't damage her, her armor was getting more and more difficult to move around in and she quickly realized what that meant. She tried to take it off but it was already too late. The rust made the pieces of her suit stick together. She was trapped in her own armor.
"You dishonor my name, you dishonor Commander Hurricane by wearing that armor, but most of all you dishonor the Wonderbolts by forcing them to go to war against their own and turning them into the tools of oppression." Rainbow told her counterpart as she slowly approached her. "And I won't allow this anymore!"
Regime Rainbow tried to escape the onslaught of attacks, but five years of going unchallenged made her soft. She didn't have any higher goal to reach for in years, since Regime Twilight made her the leader of the Wonderbolts. Main Rainbow in the other hoof, stayed sharp. Her wonderbolts superiors never would have allowed her to go soft. They never gave her a break and always demanded that she pushed herself beyond her limits. Regime Rainbow didn't have a chance. In a few minutes, she was lying unconscious by her main universe counterpart's hooves.
"Who would have guessed that beating up myself would be so satisfying?"
Dash then looked up and saw the Wonderbolts of this world standing around them. Looking uncertain of what to do. This was something Rainbow shared. She wasn't sure what she should do now. As far as she knew, these pegasi were also her enemies, but then she remembered Insurgency Discord's words.
'If only there was a heroic, uncorrupted version of her around to stop her and guide those poor Wonderbolts back to the right path.'
She now knew what she had to do. But knowing and doing were two different things.
"Uhm... look! I'm not really good at these kind of things. I'm a mare of action, not words and I don't really know how to give a rousing speech. But one thing I do know, is what it means to be a Wonderbolt" She flew to the edge of the cloud and pointed down towards the earth. "When the ponies of Equestria look up at the sky and see us soar through the air, they're supposed to feel safe and protected! They're supposed to know that these awesome, kickflank pegasi are looking out for them and always step in when trouble arises! We're not just the fastest flyers in Equestria! We're it's first and last line of defense! And now, a crazy empress is out there, trying to wreck two of Equestra's greatest cities! The way I see it, you have two choices: you can either throw away and spit on everything it means to be a Wonderbolt and join her as her lackeys in this attack like she..." she shot a dirty look at her fallen counterpart. "...wants you to, or you can come with me and show her what it means to be a true, 20% cooler Wonderbolt! So what's it gonna be?"
The pegasi around her looked at each other with conflicted faces, before the very same mare whom Regime Dash wanted to lead the attack stepped forward. "You're wrong." she told Rainbow, who stepped back, expecting them all to jump at her. But then, her expression turned into a smile. "You're quite good at giving a rousing speech."
Back at the Insurgency's HQ, Insurgency Celestia was about to cast her interuniversal transport spell on the main world ponies, much to their disbelief.
"You can't be serious! You still want to send us back?!" Shining Armor snapped.
"I am serious. Once I've managed to locate where your Rainbow Dash had disappeared to, you're all going home." she replied, her voice leaving no room for contradiction. But the main world ponies were not about to just accept that. Especially Insurgency Celestia's counterpart. She stepped forward and placed a supportive hoof on her shoulder.
"I cannot pretend to understand what you are going through. I never dared to even entertain the thought of my student ever going down such a path as yours did. I was hoping my Twilight could take over from me once she had a few more years of experience, but NOT LIKE THIS. Nor can I understand the grief of loosing your husband, having never been married myself. But one thing I do understand is that without our help, you will die. And Insurgency will die with you."
"Then maybe that's my fate." Insurgency Celestia replied after a brief pause.
"You can defy fate."
"You have no idea what you ask of me. It's madness!"
"Is it any more madness then when you brought us over?" the princess asked, gesturing to herself and the other main world ponies.
"In my defense, I never intended to pull you over."
"You may not have, but you brought them over because you had faith. The faith you seem to have lost by now. You trusted them that they would help you uphold the values you gave everything to defend. So trust them again. Trust yourself. And let us end this." Princess Celestia's words seemed to have finally break through her counterpart's thick skull. But she still didn't look totally convinced.
"Even if I would agree, I'm not sure I could bring her over. I don't think I have enough magic left." Princess Celestia gave her an encouraging smile and picked up the scroll containing the spell.
"Then we'll do it together." she replied warmly. Insurgency Celestia looked down at the scroll uncertainly, before letting out a sigh. What she was about to do will either save her world or doom it for good.
"You have no idea how this spell works, do you?" Princess Celestia chuckled.
"I was hoping you wouldn't figure that out." The two alicorns walked to the middle of the room and interlocked their hooves before Insurgency Celestia's horn lit up with familiar blue light and she unleashed her spell towards the middle of the room. The other ponies watched in awe as the blue magical energy in front of them began to take shape. The very familiar shape of their world's Twilight Sparkle.
It was time to finish this.
Chapter 12: Twilight Sparkle
It goes without saying that initially, Twilight Sparkle wasn't very thrilled with the idea of being sucked into the same mirror universe that her friends disappeared into against her will, let alone help the residents of this universe end a bloody civil war against her tyrant counterpart. But once she was calmed down by her mentor and the other world's Celestia explained everything, she could hardly be restrained.
"We need to get started. Innocent ponies are dying." she said as she talked over her plan of attack with her Celestia. Insurgency Celestia watched them from the back of the room. She was still uncertain about her counterpart's decision to bring in her Twilight.
"We will keep the main forces of the Regime occupied in Ponyville. That will give you time to focus on their Twilight." Celestia instructed, but Twilight shook her head.
"No. From what this world's Celestia told me, alicorns are significantly weakened in this world besides my counterpart. It would be too dangerous for you and the others. We'll do it together. Then I'll deal with Empress Twilight." she paused. Even saying that out loud felt wrong. "But Tirek is gonna be tricky." Celestia nodded.
"That fight could result in plenty of collateral damage." Princess Celestia noted.
"You're right. It would be best to force that fight elsewhere to minimize it as much as possible." Twilight replied before turning to Insurgency Celestia. "Is there anything else I should know about?" the leader of the Insurgency stared at her with an unreadable expression which made Twilight kind of nervous. But then, she stepped forward and put a hood on Twilight's shoulder before her face softened completely into a warm smile.
"I realize this isn't entirely accurate, but it's good to have you back." she said, before pulling the smaller alicorn into a hug. Twilight was caught off guard by this, but quickly returned the hug with a smile of her own.
"I wish I could say it's good to be back, but I realize that wouldn't be entirely accurate either."
In Ponyville, the final battle between the forces of the Regime and the Insurgency was raging on with unmatched ferocity. Applejack was duking it out with her counterpart. She threw her lasso around her, but as the loose tightened, Regime Applejack took hold of the rope with her teeth and gave it a strong pull, throwing Applejack off balance and she fell on the ground.
Regime Applejack was freed, but before she could attack her counterpart, she was interrupted by Insurgency Fluttershy who started flying in circles around her. Regime Applejack tried to buck her away, but she was flying too fast. The Pegasus then grabbed the earth pony from behind, but she reached behind, took hold of her and threw her over her shoulder, straight at the main world Applejack who was just getting up, causing the two ponies to crash into each other.
Starlight Glimmer was standing at the top of a building, shooting spells at the Regime ponies below, until she was interrupted by a kick to side by Regime Cozy Glow flying into her at full speed. The unicorn fell off the building and landed in front of Regime Big Mac, who raised his hooves and attempted to stomp on Starlight, who barely had enough time to teleport out of the way.
Shining Armor was trying to surpess Regime Flurry Heart, trying to be gentle. She may not have been been his actual daughter, but he still didn't want to hurt her too bad. It looked like he was succeeding, until he felt something hit him in the face. He turned around to see Regime Pinkie Pie throwing cupcakes at him.
"Since my Celestia destroyed my party cannon, this is all I have. Don't worry, they don't have any ponies in them. I haven't fallen that low." she reassured, before resuming to throw more of them at the stallion. Of course, they weren't really doing any harm to him, so he just stood there and wiped them off of his face before turning back to Regime Pinkie Pie with a glare. Regime Pinkie ran out of cupcakes and she was no expert in magic, she quickly realized that this wasn't a fight she could win so she decided on a tactical retreat instead.
"Oh, would you look at the time! I have an appointment with my dentist after so many sugar I've consumed." she laughed nervously. "Later!" she shouted before turning around and bolting away.
"Oh, no, you won't!" Shining Armor said, lifting the fleeing earth pony with his magic and hanging her on the edge of a house by her jacket. Unfortunately, this gave Regime Flurry time to recover and break out of the bubble Shining Armor trapped her in and resumed attacking him.
Insurgency Sunset Shimmer was fighting Regime Lightning Dust. The Pegasus was still rather worn down from her battle with Rainbow Dash, so the unicorn easily beat her into submission. Though her triumph was short-lived as immediately after it, she found herself facing Regime Nightmare Moon.
"I am eager to see what my sister's former protégé is capable of against me." the dark alicorn grinned menacingly. Insurgency Sunset muttered a quick curse under her breath before she retreated as Regime Nightmare Moon gave chase.
Cadence quickly subdued Regime Blueblood and she was currently attempting the same with Regime Spitfire. But the Pegasus was hard to catch and even harder to hold down. As Cadence struggled to tie her hooves and wings behind her back on the ground, Regime Blueblood came to and noticed an abandoned cart nearby. He lifted it with his magic and threw it at Cadence, who didn't notice it in time to deflect it or get out of the way.
But before the cart crashed into her, a huge bolt of purple magical energy came out of nowhere and destroyed the cart. The purple blast was so big and bright that everypony in the crowd stopped. They turned to look at where the blast came from and saw Twilight Sparkle slowly descending from above. The Regime ponies gulped in unison when they realized that this was not their Twilight. They all knew what this meant. Twilight saw what Regime Blueblood was about to do to Cadence and decided to make him his first target.
“That is quite enough, Blueblood.” she said as she landed in front of him. “If you are anything like in my world, I know you only heed the words of those above your station. So heed an alicorn princess and stand down!” she ordered. To her surprise, Regime Blueblood's answer was a huge blast from his horn that sent Twilight flying back several meters.
“I heed the words only of the Empress.” he snarled, lifitng the debry of the cart Twilight destroyed up into the air. “You and your friends are weak! And your world will suffer for it!” he then shot the debry he lifted at Twilight, but she managed to recover enough from the blast to take off and dodge them. Twilight had no trouble evading the debris in the air, but she couldn't keep doing this for long. She needed to go on the offensive and take out Regime Blueblood.
She stopped in the air and waited for the stallion's next attack and just as she expected, he shot the debris straight at her. Twilight fired blastst at the debris, destroying them in the process, which gave her an opening to strike Regime Blueblood. And that's exactly what she did. She hit Regime Blueblood in the face and the punch sent him to the ground. Twilight attempted to knock him out, but the unicorn countered with a shield spell that knocked Twilight back.
Regime Bluelbood then tried blast her with a spell of his own, but Twilight dodged and flew at him, aiming for another blast, but Regime Blueblood was quicker and interlocked his horn with hers. The two struggled to push the other back, but Regime Blueblood unwittingly gave Twilight an opening. She used a freezing spell and since her horn was right on top of his, it affected him immediatley. Before he could react and pull back, the ice already spread across most of his head and he soon found himself incased in a massive block of ice.
“That will hold you long enough.” Twilight said turning away, only to see Regime Nightmare Moon charging towards her from the air like a huge meteor. The dark alicorn crashed into the ground, creating a huge crater in the ground with a huge dust cloud. Once the dust had settled, Regime Nightmare Moon expected to see Twilight's broken body beneath her, but her eyes widened in shock when she saw nothing.
“What? Where is she?” she growled, looking around for Twilight, but she didn't see her anywhere. Then she suddenly felt a light tap on her shoulder form above and she looked up to attack, but Twilight beat her to it. She touched the tip of her her horn with hers and unleashed a spell that banished the Nightmare from the alicorn's body, returning her to Regime Princess Luna. The ordeal was so exhausting for her that she passed out on the ground.
“From what I've heard, you embraced the Nightmare willingly in this world, Luna. So I wouldn't expect your punishment to be light.” She then looked away to see Regime Cozy Glow and Regime Big Mac still chasing Starlight. She flew into their way and the two came to screeching halt, with Regime Cozy looking up in fright, realizing what a powetful enemy she was facing.
“Get her, Big Mac!” she yelled, jumping onto the stallion's back. “Take her out!”
“I don't think so.” Twilight said, before pressing her horn against Regime Big Mac's forehead and used her magic to clear his head of her counterpart's mind control spell. Regime Big Mac's eyes widened as the sepll cleared his head, but once it was done, he narrowed his eyes and looked back at Regime Cozy with a death glare. The pegasus gulped and tried to fly off, but Regime Big Mac bucked her up into the air and as she fell, he caught her mane with his mouth. Regime Cozy tried to struggle to escape, but eventually realized it was hopeless and just folded her forelegs with a pout.
“I really must have lost it in this world if I thought it was a good idea to employ you.” Twilight snarled. She looked away to see the battle was now going in their favor. Shininh Armor trapped Regime Flurry in a magic bubble, Cadence finally managed to tie up Regime Spitfire who was now sitting on the ground tied together with Regime Pinkie and Regime Lightning. The only one left standing was Regime Applejack. Twilight walked up to her with a strict glare and the earth pony looked like she expected to be smitten down with all of the alicorn's might. But Twilight just stopped in front of her and looked her frimly in the eye.
“The Applejack I know is a pony who values her friends and family above all else. She is honest, caring and most importantly, she is responsible. She recognizes her mistakes, takes responsibility for them and always does what's right. Now I'm giving you a chance to become that pony again. And if there is anything left in you from that pony, you will not waste it.”
Regime Applejack looked back at her with shame and regret in her eyes. It was obvious that she knew Twilight was right. Slowly, she took of her peaked cap and dropped it on the ground, hanging her head in surrender. Main Applejack and Insurgency Fluttershy came up to her and took her away.
“Nice work, Twi.” Applejack said to her as they lead her counterpart away towards the captured Regime ponies. “We can handle things here now. You should head over to Canterlot.” Twilight just nodded and flew off, praying that she wouldn't be too late to save the other city too.
In Canterlot, the Regime forces were advancing with little to no resistance. The insurgents were stretched thin and their main objective was rescuing civilians instead of engaging the enemy anyway. And they were backed by the mind controlled Regime Triek and Regime Cadence, leading her crystal guards against the city. They were currently tailing a retreating group of insurgent troops on the streets, when Cadence raised her hoof and motioned forwards, ordering her troops to take them down from afar. Her troops fired arrows and magic blasts at them and they would have surely hit the escaping ponies, if it wasn't for a huge magical barrier appearing in the way, absorbing the attacks and then moving towards the crystal ponies. Regime Cadnece had to fire a blast of her own at the barrier to disperse it. Once it disappeared, she and her soldiers saw Twilight landing in front of them.
“Is this how you live up to your title as 'The Princess of Love'?” Twilight asked. To see Cadence, kind and caring Cadence acting so vicious and aggressive was almost infathomable to her. Cadence glared back.
“This is me acting as the Crystal Empire's protector! Don't think my sentiments for the past with my Twilight will stop me! You cannot fight me and my soldiers alone!” but to her surprise, Twilight just smirked back.
“Who said I was alone?” after she said that, Rainbow Dash bolted in from behind Twilight, smirking down at the crystal ponies smugly with her forelegs folded as a large group of pegasi appeared behind her. On the left were the Insurgency's air force ponies and on her right were the Wonderbolts. Regime Cadence instantly knew what this meant: trouble for her and her soldiers.
Rainbow Dash pointed down at Cadence and her militia and the pegasi behind her attacked. The resulting chaos gave Regime Cadance enough the chance to slip away and take on Twilight herself. The smaller alicorn was taken aback as a blast from Regime Cadance hit her and pushed her on the ground. Twilight tried looking around for her opponent, but all she could see were the other battling ponies. Regime Cadance used to crowd and the battle around her to strike unseen.
Twilight decided on a different approach. She flew up into the air and tried to spot Regime Cadance from above. While she still wasn't able to locate her, a pink blast coming from the crowd gave her away. Twilight blocked the blast with a shield spell, then flew down and scooped up Regime Cadance and carried her off into the air. Regime Cadance struggled to break free, but Twilight's grip was too strong. She then blasted Twilight in the face with a spell, pushing her away. Twilight managed to regain her balance before Regime Cadance could fly away to hide again and the two aliconrs were now facing each other in the air.
“You're not wanted here!” Regime Cadance yelled, charging up her horn and relasing another blast towards Twilight. Twilight counterd with a blast of her own and the two beams of magical energy connected in the air, creating a huge energy ball in the middle. Both of them tried to overpower the other and it looked like Twilight was the one who was succeeding as the energy ball started to move towards Regime Cadance and before she could escape, it exploded right in front of her and sent her plummeting towards the ground with a scream.
“We may not be wanted, but we're clearly needed.” Twilight said to herself. With Regime Cadance incapacitated, the Crysral forces became demorlized and were quickly overwhelmed by the pegasi. Twilight went to find Rainbow Dash who was currently beating a crystal guard the handle of his own spear, forcing him to retreat.
“Rainbow, how are we doing?” Rainbow smirked in response.
“These pegasi may not be as tough as my Wonderbolts, but they're still the best this Equestria has to offer. The jewel ponies never stood a chance and they know it. They're retreating.” she reported, which Twilight acknowledged with a nod.
“Good. Chase them out of the city and then turn your attention towards rescuing as many civilians as you can!”
“Got it.” Dash nodded. “What about you? Going after your counterpart?”
“Soon. There's still one thing I'll have to...” before she could finish, a Regime Troop Transport Carriage crashed into from the air and sent her crashing into the ground.
“TWILIGHT?!” Rainbow screamed before flying down to check on the alicorn. She was about to try and push the carriage away, but then a purple aura surrounded the wreck and it flew away, revealing a bruised, but still very much alive Twilight. “Are you ok?” Rainbow asked. Before Twilight could answer, a huge crash was heard and the two turned to see Regime Tirek standing in front of them.
“Go and help the other pegasi.” Twilight said. “I've got this!”
“Are you sure?” Rainbow asked in concern, still checking Twilight for injusries.
“Trust me, I know just the thing to handle him.” Rainbow still looked unsure, but eventually gave in and flew off to join the other pegasi driving the crystal ponies out of the city. Twilight then turned to face Regime Tirek.
“Come on, you behemoth monster! Do your worst!” Twilight whispered coldly, before blasting Regime Tirek with a spell. The spell apparently had no effect on him, with the exception of pissing him off. The centaur charged at Twilight who simply flew out of the way before he could reach her., which was easier said than done, since she was still a little hurt from the vehicle Regime Tirek threw at her, but she still managed to collect herself shortly.
Regime Tirek advanced towards Twilight unrelentingly, but she managed to keep her distance and occasionally blast him with the same spell she used the first time. Regime Tirek didn't understand why she kept using this obviously ineffective tactic for so long, but he couldn't ruminate on it as Regime Twilight's mind control spell just kept telling him to attack mindlessly. So that's what he did.
Twilight just kept hitting him with her spell and it was just as ineffective at hurting him as it was before, but he started feeling something. His magic was getting weaker and the strength of Twilight's spell was also increasing. His inability to think due to Regime Twilight's mind control cost him dearly as he realized too late what Twilight was doing.
“You're... You're...” Twilight smirked back triumphantly.
“Draining your magic. I did the same with Cadance and the two Celestias also gave me their remaining magic. Not so fun when it happens to you, huh Tirek?” she snarled, before flying up and charging straight at Regime Tirek. She wrapped her forelegs around his waist and due do the power she drained from him, she was now strong enough to carry him off into the air.
Twilight didn't hesitate for a second and headed straight towards the Castle of Friendship at full speed. Regime Tirek tried to break free, even pummeling Twilight's back and even trying to grab her wings but it was of no use. In a few seconds, the two crashed into Twilight's destination through the roof and before they hit the ground, Twilight used the spell she used to free Regime Big Mac of the mind control on Regime Tirek. She might use him as a distraction against her counterpart, or even to just wear her down for her.
It looked like this plan could even work as the first thing Regime Tirek did once the spell was complete was toss Twilight off of himself and turning towards the Empress of Magic, who was sitting on her throne, still getting over the surprise of the two crashing through her roof.
“TWILIGHT!” Regime Tirek screamed with his voice distorted by rage. “I'M NOT YOUR SLAVE!” he was about to charge at the fallen alicorn, but then Regime Twilight's horn lit up with dark green light and she fired a spell straight at Regime Tirek's chest. Main Twilight's eyes widened as she saw Regime Tirek's back exploding with blood and remains of the centaur's heart. Regime Tirek raised his hend to the wound and when he felt what happened to him, he was about to go into a shock, but he didn't have time for that as Regime Twilight lifted him up with her magic.
“No. You're my dead slave.” she muttered, tossing Regime Tirek's body away and letting him bleed out on the floor. She then turned her attention towards her main world counterpart. Twilight was frightened beyond belief. To see herself at full alicorn size and wielding so much power that she could effortlessly kill and toss away Tirek was both fascinating and terrifying. But the biggest gut punch was seeing herself – even in another universe – leading a tyrannical regime, opposing her Celestia, the pony she held in the highest regard.
Regime Twilight slowly started to approach her. “So they finally brought you in.” she snarled. “One of our Celestia correctly speculated that I can't use my depowering spell on you without weakening myself in the process. Nevertheless, that doesn't change a thing. You and your friends don't belong here. This is my world.” Twilight finally managed to overcome her shock about her counterpart and gave her a firm glare. She wasn't going to let her see her fear.
“I don't think so. A princess' obligations don't end at the borders of her own universe.” Regime Twilight rolled her eyes.
“How noble. But this world already has a Princess of Friendship to protect it.”
“I wouldn't exactly call what's going on out there 'friendship' and 'protection'.” Twilight reprimanded, but the Empress just shrugged.
“Disobedient foals will be punished.” she said casually. Twilight recoiled in horror and disgust at her counterpart's nonchalance over the lives her forces were slaughtering.
“Foals?! We may have become princesses, but that doesn't make us gods! We don't get to decide who lives or dies!” the Empress narrowed her eyes.
“It IS my decision!” she exploded in anger. “It became mine when Chrysalis turned me into a weapon of mass destruction!” Twilight's eyes dropped in pity and sympathy. She had also heard what happened in this world's Canterlot five years ago. A tragedy that never should have happened, but it was no excuse for all of this. She was hoping that maybe if the Empress heard it from herself, it might make her come to her senses.
“I know what you have lost. And more importantly I knew you were tricked into bringing it about, but...”
“Don't bother! I've heard all of it before from my Celestia! And even yours when I was interrogating her! I don't need to hear it from myself! You judge me despite everything I've lost and what I've done to make sure it never happens again because you know you wouldn't have the guts to do it! I've had enough of it!” she then calmed herself a little and started walking towards her counterpart. “After I've killed you, I'll bring your family over. When they'll see how I perfected this world...”
“They'll be afraid and disgusted at what their 'daughter' had become!” Twilight interrupted. All hope for reasoning was now lost. She will never let this monster get anywhere near her family and her world.
“They'll be alive!” the Empress argued. It was obvious she had lost all her common sense and her mind.
“Your family's death doesn't justify all this!” Twilight snapped back, but it seemed like the Empress didn't even hear her.
“Chrysalis stole them from me! She stole everything from me!”
“And you stole the freedom of an entire nation!” Twilight yelled, rising into the air and preparing herself to attack. “It's time to give it back.”
Twilight immediately unleashed her most powerful spells sraight at the Empress. She expected that the extra magic she got from the two Celestias and drained from Regime Cadance and Regime Tirek would give her the edge she needed over the Empress, but Regime Twilight was tougher than she expected. She shrugged off everything she threw at her, before flying up, taking hold of the crystal chandelier hanging over them and throwing it at Twilight. The smaller alicorn barely had time to get out of the way, but pieces of the shrapnel coming from the shattered crystal formation still managed to wound her. Twilight had to fly down and heal her injuries with a spell while her counterpart slowly floated towards her.
“Did you expect me to be beaten so easily?! Even with your magic boost, you are still barely my equal. Oh, and don't bother with that magic drain sepll on me. I already cast a counterspell on myself.” She then came crashing down on Twilight who managed to heal herself enough to get out of the way.
Twilight decided to change tactics and tried to get physical. She flew up and used her magic to pick up pieces of furniture and throw them at the Empress, but she easily got out of their way or simply blasted them away. Twilight then levitated all of the debris lying around the room and moved it around the Empress, forming a cage around her. She then sent the cage crashing down towards the ground, but the Empress broke out of it, shattering it to pieces with a magical explosion.
Regime Twilight had enough of playing around. She flew over to Twilight and grabbed her by the neck with her hooves. She then charged up her horn and blasted Twilight away, sending her crashing through a door that lead towards the stairway downstairs. Twilight tumbled down the stairs and landed in front of another door. Regime Twilight floated down towards and charged her horn for another blast, but Twilight used her magic to tear the door behind her out of it's place and throw it at her. Regime Twilight's blast shattered the door, but it gave Twilight an opening to fly at her and jam both of her forehooves into the Empress' stomach and pushed her up back towards the throne room, crashing her into her throne and shattering it to pieces.
Twilight realized that she had the Empress grounded and she pulled her hoof back to punch her across the face, but she wasn't going to go down in such a primitive way. Regime Twilight quickly raised her head to glare up at Twilight with her eyes burning dark violet and she blasted her away. She crashed back against the wall and Regime Twilight flew over to her and pushed her into the wall again. She then threw her across the room and she landed on the shattered remains of the throne. Regime Twilight then used her magic to summon every bit of broken crystal and levitated them into the air directly above Twilight and prepared to send them down towards the smaller alicorn to impale her.
But this was not to be the end of Princess Twilight Sparkle. There was no way she was going to die in a mirror universe by the hooves of her crazed tyrant counterpart. The magic she had collected during the battle may not have been enough, but she had access to an even more powerful magic. Princess Twilight closed her eyes and reached out to her friends who were fighting in this world. She reached Starlight who just turned over another Regime trooper to the Insurgents. She reached Cadance and Shining Armor who were consoling each other after they had to witness Regime Flurry being taken away in chains. She reached Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were greeting each other with a hug upon Dash's triumphant return from Canterlot. And they all felt her too. They closed their eyes and sent their love and friendship back to Princess Twilight and in turn, they made her stronger than ever before. Empress Twilight sent the sharp crystals down towards Princess Twilight to finish her off, but to her shock, the crystals were all obliterated just before they could pierce the princess. Princess Twilight floated up from the ground, surrounded by a blinding purple aura.
“Wha... what is this?!” the Empress exclaimed as she backed away in panic.
“The fact that I even have to explain it to you shows how low you have fallen.” Princess Twilight responded with her eyes still closed. “This is the power you threw away and the power that will be your downfall. This is the magic of friendship.”
“No! This cannot be! This is my world! I am the Princess of Friendship here!” Empress Twilight panicked. She could feel the power radiating from the princess and even to her, it felt overwhelming. The aura around Princess Twilight faded as she spoke again.
“What you are is the farthest possible thing from that.” her counterpart's comment made Empress Twilight get over her shock. It was replaced with anger and she flew up to the princess.
“Shut up! You don't know anything! I became what I had to become!” she was now floating face to face with Princess Twilight. “I SAVED THIS EQUESTRIA!” she screamed, before raising her hoof and trying to punch the princess, but she caught her hoof and held it in place effortlessly, much to the empress' bewilderment. Princess Twilight's eyes finally snapped open and she glared at her counterpart with contempt.
“And now I'll save it from you.” she said before kicking the empress away, sending her crashing back to the floor.
The tables have turned. Now it was the Empress of Magic who seemed powerless next to the Princess of Friendship. Princess Twilight teleported next to her counterpart and punched her in the face from each side. Her punches felt much stronger this time around. Empress Twilight tried to punch her again, but Princess Twilight once again caught it, grabbed her hoof with both of hers, turned around and threw Empress Twilight hard against the wall.
The Empress realized that at this rate, no matter how hard she will fight and how long she will last, she will lose. She had to end this now. She collected all of her remaining magic into her horn and released a blast more powerful than any of her previous spells. Princess Twilight did the same and just like with Regime Cadance before, it resulted in a ball of magical energy where the two bolts of energy. Both alicorns tried to overpower the other, but it was becoming obvious that Princess Twilight was winning.
But Empress Twilight was too proud and stubborn to give up. She still tried to overpower her counterpart, but it was a futile effort. And it was her downfall. The magical energy reached the Empress and as it got closer and closer, it touched her horn, resulting in a huge explosion which sent Regime Twilight back against a wall. If she had any strength to fight back, she never got to show it, because as she slowly opened her eyes, she noticed something that terrified her. Her broken horn was laying in front of her on the ground. Before she could do anything, Princess Twilight stomped on it and it shattered in front of the Empress, letting out one last sparkle of magical energy, almost as a dying breath. Empress Twilight looked up to see her counterpart glaring down at her.
“Your reign is over.” she told her firmly. “You won't terrorize these ponies any longer.” Empress Twilight sighed in defeat before she gave the princess one last defiant look.
“Friendship and harmony only go so far. Fear is the only thing some creatures understand. One day, you'll learn that too. The hard way.” she snarled before finally passing out. Twilight gave her a final pitying look before she saw five other ponies entering the room. They were her friends accompanied by Insurgency Celestia. They all surrounded the defeated empress who recovered enough to return their glares. She then looked up at Insurgency Celestia with barely contained fury. She may have been defeated, but she won't give her the satisfaction of seeing her surrender.
“You'll have to kill me.” she told her. Insurgency Celestia remained stoic. It almost sounded like a plea to her. Maybe death would have been a mercy after all the loss Regime Twilight suffered and guilt she had to live with after everything she did. But she wouldn't grant it to her. She had to answer for her crimes against Equestria.
“No, Twilight. You will not get off that easy. You will face justice by the hooves of the ponies you have oppressed for so many years. They deserve that much. Besides, I believe more than enough killing have occurred in this little war of yours.”
This was the final blow. Regime Twilight hung her head down in complete and total defeat. It was over. The Equestrian Magical Regime was no more.
Author's Note
And here is the final chapter done and dusted! Just a short epilogue left and I will finish my first story on this site!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment, that would mean a lot! The epilogue will probably be finished by tomorrow and then we can move on to Unfriendship 2! Stay tuned!
The former Empress of Magic, Regime Twilight Sparkle, the once most powerful pony in Equestria was now sitting in a small cell in Tartarus, bound in chains and without her horn, rendering her powerless. It was a pitiful sight to behold. 'How the mighty have fallen...' Insurgency Celestia thought as she stood outside her former student's cell, looking down at her with a pitiful look. 'In more ways than one...'
“If somepony told me that you would ever end up in here, I would have downright accused them of high treason.” she told Regime Twilight. The defeated purple alicorn looked up at her with scorn.
“Here to boast about your victory, Celestia?” she spat. “What am I saying, it wasn't even yours! You had to yank our counterparts over from a mirror universe to have a chance of defeating us! Pathetic. Once again, you had to use others to do your dirty work! Or are you just here to condescend and lecture me like you always did?!” Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes.
“I believe I have already given you every lecture I possibly could. And none of them made you come to your senses. I don't think there's anything left for me to tell you.” her expression then softened and she closed her eyes lamentingly. “You were the best pupil I ever had, Twilight. I had every faith in you. You came close to live up to my highest expectations, but in the end, you have failed in the worst possible way. I realize that the blame is not entirely yours. I didn't teach you well enough to fully be prepared for the evils of the world. I couldn't stop Chrysalis from getting to you. I didn't realize your faith in friendship and harmony weren't strong enough to withstand such a blow. And for these, I'm truly sorry. But in the end, you have chosen this path. And now, you have to live with the consequences.” she then turned away to leave. “Goodbye, Twilight.” Regime Twilight screamed in rage and lunged forward as much as her chains allowed.
“Yes, walk away, Celestia! That's what you do best! Just like you walked away from us when we needed you the most! Go ahead and liberate your ponies!” she spat the word 'liberate' like it was poison. “Give them back their petty squabbles over status, land and money! Make them comfortable once more so they can let changelings, dragons and all kinds of monsters walk all over them and their land! You are a failure! A failure of a teacher, a failure of a ruler and a failure of a friend! And your Equestria will crumble into the dust around you again, because in the end, you are just a sad, broken pony still grieving for the mistakes of your past!”
“Ouch.” Rainbow Dash cringed as Insurgency Celestia and the main world ponies made their way out of Tartarus. “Talk about a sore loser.” she then turned to their Twilight. “Are you OK, Twi? Seeing yourself like this must have been quite a shock to you.” Twilight sighed. Shock was the least of it.
“I don't know, Dash. For me, Celestia was like my second mother and the best teacher I could ask for. There are few things I wouldn't do for her. To turn against her like my counterpart did? Not even the concept of it has ever crossed my mind! And now I have seen it myself firsthoof!”
“You cannot blame yourself for her actions.” Insurgency Celestia said. “She may be your counterpart from my world, but she isn't you.”
“She's right, Twilight.” Cadence reassured. “You're still the same kind hearted, heroic, princess of friendship you have always been and we know it will never change.”
“So was my counterpart.” Twilight lamented. ”If one Twilight can fall so low, why couldn't another?” her friends didn't seem to have an answer to that, so Insurgency Celestia answered instead.
“There is no point in dwelling on that.” told her reassuringly. “That being said, if the worst comes to pass and you do lose it, I will come over.” she added jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. Twilight actually chuckled at this.
“I think my friends will probably beat you to it.” she replied. Applejack and Rainbow Dash wrapped their forehooves around her from each side.
“We sure as sugar will.” Applejack smiled brightly.
“So you better not get any funny ideas, Twi. We're not like our counterparts from this world. We won't kneel for you.” Rainbow Dash added.
“I know you won't.” Twilight replied before hugging them.
“Not to mention this Twilight didn't have her Twilight Velvet to keep her in line.” Shining Armor said. “Could you imagine what she would do to either of us if we ever fell like that.” the siblings shuddered at the thought.
“So what will happen now?” Cadance asked Insurgency Celestia once they were out of Tartarus.
“Most of Twilight's forces have either been rounded up or turned themselves in.” Insurgency Celestia replied. “Our next task is restoring civil order.”
“The transitional government you set up has it's hooves full.” Twilight said with concern. “Equestria is a big country. Transforming it's entire governmental and administrative structure won't happen overnight. You know, we can stay for a couple more days to help with the rebuilds.” Insurgency Celestia smiled warmly at the offer.
“I appreciate the offer, but I will have to refuse. You have already done more for me than I ever could have hoped. Besides, the ponies need to know that this time, they're in control, not us.” Twilight looked up at her with worry.
“So I take it that means you haven't changed your mind.” Insurgency Celestia nodded sadly.
“I'm afraid the age of alicorn princesses in my Equestria has come to an end. My little ponies would probably never trust another one after everything my Twilight did. Even though they consider me a hero now more than ever, I believe my time has come to step aside and let Equestria shape it's own future.”
“You don't have to retire completely.” Cadance suggested. “You could still be a part of the political sphere. Maybe if Equestria would reform into a democracy or constitutional monarchy, you could run for president. You would still be in the same position just with a different title and less freedom to make your decisions with a parlaiment around you.” Insurgency Celestia actually found this an interesting suggestion. Even if she herself had said so, she didn't think she could retire. She would miss the active life. And with how much ponies loved and supported her right now, it would be easy to win a possible election.
“I will consider it, Cadance, thank you. In fact, I think I will do just that.”
“Do you think you will ever take on another student?” Starlight asked. This was a question that Insurgency Celestia wasn't so confident to answer.
“I don't know. I failed with Sunset Shimmer, I failed with my Twilight. Obviously I have overestimated my teaching skills.”
“You never know, Celestia.” Cadance said comfortingly. “Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. It might pay off greatly.”
“I'm not sure how much faith I have left.” Insurgency Celestia replied glumly, making the main world ponies understand that this was not a topic she wished to discuss further. The group passed by a winged carriage surrounded by a group of pegasi guards. Inside the carriage were sitting Regime Rainbow Dash, Regime Spitfire, Regime Lightning Dust and Regime Cozy Glow with their wings and forehooves tied behind their backs. Another group of guards appeared escorting Insurgency Thunderlane and Insurgency Fluttershy, much to Rainbow's shock.
“Hey, what are you guys doing? They were with the good guys!” she demanded from the guards before Insurgency Celestia pulled her back.
“I told you before Rainbow, it wasn't always like that. Me and Fluttershy both served with the Regime for a long time.” Insurgency Thunderlane told her sadly.
“And we both did many things in Twilight's name that we need to answer for.” Insurgency Fluttershy added. Rainbow stared in disbelief before turning to Insurgency Celestia.
“Can't you do something? Grant them amnesty or something like that? They left the Regime and joined us! That has to apply for something!” the alicorn sadly shook her head.
“I no longer hold my title Rainbow Dash, I have no authority to do that. But you are right. Given their genuine remorse and the fact that they aided us in the final battle, I am sure they will receive lighter sentences than the others.”
“It's okay, Rainbow. We made peace with this decision.” Insurgency Fluttershy said with a reassuring smile. The guards led them away and locked the carriage which then took off towards Cloudsdale, where the prisoners inside will face the judgement of a united pegasus court.
“And what will happen to the rest of our counterparts?” Starlight asked.
“They will also stand trial. I have been asked to help a unicorn court pass judgement on Twilight, Luna, Flurry and Blueblood. As well as the more powerful unicorns who served with the Regime, like my Starlight and Trixie. As for my Applejack and Pinkie Pie, the surviving members of the Apple clan have approached us and requested that we release them into their custody. We granted their request. Big Macintosh rememers everything he did under Twilight's control so I wouldn't expect their punishment to be light.”
“Good. Serves her right.” Applejack scoffed.
“And my counterpart?” Cadance asked.
“From what I gathered, my Cadance and her forces managed to retreat into the Crystal Empire and are now claiming diplomatic immunity.” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Diplomatic immunity? She was leading armed forces against Canterlot. I'm pretty sure that passes as an act of war.”
“Cadance defends with her country being coerced into the attack by the Regime. But quite frankly, everypony is more concerned with fixing our country first before we turn our attention elsewhere. However, the fact the we have her daughter will probably not improve our relations much.”
With everything sorted and discussed, the only thing left to do for the main world ponies was to finally leave. They were all eager to return home. Their Celestia already returned to escort their Chrysalis back and to finally reassure their world's ponies that everything was alright. Applejack patted Twilight on the shoulder.
“Come on, sugarcube! Let's go home. Ah reckon we have one heck of a story to tell the others.”
“We sure do!” Rainbow exclaimed with glee. “Now I am the savior of not one, but two Equestrias! This just made me 20% cooler! Oh, and you guys as well, of course.” but Twilight wasn't ready to go just yet. There was still something bothering her.
“Uh... you guys go ahead. I'll meet you back home.” the others looked at each other in concern, but eventually conceded and headed back towards the castle where the unicorn mages would send them home. Twilight remained alone with Insurgency Celestia.
“What is it, Twilight. I don't mean to sound rude, but I wish to attend my husband's funeral.” Twilight's eyes widened.
“Wait, that wasn't just Rainbow pulling my leg? You actually married Sombra in this world?!” Insurgency showed her the marriage necklace hanging around her neck. It had Sombra's name on it.
“I will place it upon his grave where his with my name on it will also be put. It is my way of saying goodbye. I assure you, he was nothing like the Sombra you know. He gave his life so we can defeat my Twilight. A sacrafice that will be honored forever. I will make sure of it.”
“Wow! It's like me and Sombra swapped roled in this world. With the exception of being married to you of course.” Twilight quickly clarified, making Insurgency Celestia chuckle. “I just wanted to talk about my counterpart. I know you tried to reassure me about it, but...” Insurgency Celestia raised an eyebrow.
“But what?”
“But... something she said just doesn't stop bothering me. If I was put in the same situation... would I act any different?” she asked in fear. The very thought of it made her tremble. Insurgency Celestia walked over to her and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
“I wouldn't know about it. But one thing I do know is that you have had a far better techer and better friends than my Twilight did. Even if you ever fell, they wouldn't follow suit like in my world.” she then narrowed her eyes warningly. “Besides... I may have shared a few countermeasures I developed for such an occasion with my counterpart, so you better watch out!” Twilight gulped and nodded. Despite her benevolence and motherly warmth, Celestia could be quite frightening when she wanted to be. In any world. “Now off you go!” Insurgency Celestia told her with her warm smile returning. “I'm sure they are missing you in your world.” Twilight just nodded and ran off after her friends.
Insurgency Celestia chuckled as she watched her go. Some things never change. She then looked back at the distance. It was almost time to raise the sun and she had spent more than enough time worrying about the fate of another world, especially since hers still needed so much repairing. She let out a sigh and went to rectuit the unicorns who will help her raise the sun in her weakened state. What her Twilight said back in Tartarus was absolutely true. She was a broken pony with many mistakes to grieve. And she didn't know how much help would she be for her Equestria in her state. But if this whole ordeal taught her anything, it was that that maybe - just maybe, sometimes, a broken pony was all it took.
The End
Author's Note
Aaaaaaaaand... done! The first longer fanfic I finish! Not just on this site, but in general! It's an awesome feeling!
I would like to thank everyone who read, followed, favorited and commented, but most of all, I would like to send a huge, very special thank you to Comickook! Who was my most dedicated reader and commented on all of my chapters! So thank you! You were worth writing this whole thing for! Your comments kept inspiring me to keep going! You're amazing!
As for Unfriendship 2 - because yes, I will also adapt the sequel - I will try to start it shortly, but I won't say an exact date! I guess you'll just have to stay tuned! :)
Once again, thank you for everyone for joining me on this ride! It's been fun and I hope you'll join me on many, many more in the future. See ya around!
Canterlot. The magnificent city where the castle of Princess Celestia was located and where the elite of the ponies of Equestria lived was a shining beacon of pride and reminder of greatness for all of ponykind to look up to. Even in itself, the magnificent structure was a sight to behold. But the main reason ponies looked up to the city and the castle with a sense of pride and safety was knowing that it was the residence of their just and powerful ruler, Princess Celestia, who always watched over them and on whom they could always rely on. For as long as anypony could remember, the city has always stood tall and proud and everypony was certain that it would keep standing like that for the rest of eternity.
Within one hour, the rock solid belief of those ponies were shattered.
Today, Canterlot, the capital of the great nation of Equestria, the home of the princesses and the symbol of the ponies greatness was lying in ruins. The mountain that city was standing on was shaken by a tremendous explosion that went off in the crystal caverns that run beneath the palace. The blast was so big that not only the royal palace's, but the entire city's structure was destroyed and the once magnificent city collapsed down the mountain. The only ponies at the sight right now were the pegasi of the Royal Guard and the Wonderbolts looking for survivors with combined effort. A few others were staring at the unbelievable and horrifying sight in utter shock and devastation. No one had any idea how this could happen.
But a few hours later in the small town of Ponyville, things were now becoming more clear. The newspapers with the giant headline 'CANTERLOT DESTROYED! TENS OF THOUSANDS DEAD!' were selling like hot cakes. Everypony wanted to know who could have been so demented to do this and how they could have accomplished it. According to the newspapers: after thorough investigation, the culprit was identified and arrested and was currently being interrogated by the Princess herself at the town hall secured by her guards. It turns out that a group of changelings lead by Queen Chrysalis once again infiltrated Equestria and spent the past few months setting up explosives in the abandoned crystal caverns, but there were no further details beyond that. Celestia herself was currently trying to get these details out of the diabolical changeling queen, but what she found out was so unimaginably depraved and horrifying that it wasn't even fit to be printed.
Celestia rubbed her face with her forehoof in frustration. Dealing with the changeling queen was never easy, but in the light of what she's done and her nonchalant attitude about it, she felt like she was losing all of her patience. She angrily slammed her hoofs on the table Chrysalis was sitting at and glared at her.
"How did you reverse your changeling magic towards my ponies?!" she demanded. But all Chrysalis gave in reply was an evil grin.
"Really, Celestia? I just kidnapped two of your subjects, tied their life forces to a bunch of explosives I've been gathering under your castle - right under your nose, I might add - tricked your student into killing her parents, wiped Canterlot off the face of the planet and all you're interested in is how I reversed my changeling shape-shifting magic to make those ponies look like changelings? Wow, and ponies call me cold-hearted." she chuckled as she laid back in her seat with her back hooves put on the table and her fore hooves folded behind her head. Celestia turned away from her in an effort to calm herself as she felt like she was on the verge of doing something she will regret for the rest of her existence.
"I always knew you were demented, Chrysalis, but what you did today defies all explanations. How would destroying Canterlot benefit you? How would that get you the love to feed your changelings?" Chrysalis smiled up at the alicorn princess.
"Ah, now that is a much better question. You see, sunbutt, while Equestria does have enough love to feed my hive for generations to come, I realized that I will never going to get it as long as you and those pesky elements are in my way. So I decided to break your perfect little harmony. If I remove the head, all of it will come crashing down. And now that I have broken their leader, the Princess of Friendship herself, I'd say it's only a matter of time." Celestia glared down at her.
"It won't work, Chrysalis. Twilight Sparkle has the strongest will and resolve out of anypony I've ever known. She will grieve, she will mourn but she will not break." Chrysalis gave her a knowing half-smile like she was thinking the princess was trying to convince herself instead of her.
"Is that so?" she asked in amusement as she felt an approaching source of power burning with rage and hatred. And apparently Celestia felt it too, as she turned towards the wall with an uneasy look on her face. "Well..." Chrysalis chuckled. "...I guess we're about to find out, aren't we?"
In that moment, the wall exploded with a deafening blast that sent rubble and clouds of dust into the room. Celestia was about to call the guards standing outside as she was afraid the wicked queen's changelings have come to break her out, but instead she was horrified when she saw a pair of eyes glowing with dark lavender light glaring through the dust. When the dust has settled, she saw none other than Twilight Sparkle standing there, glaring at the changeling queen with a look of pure, unadulterated fury.
"Get... away... from her..." she growled through her gritted teeth, her voice dripping with venom, even though her words were directed towards Celestia.
"Twilight, I have things under control." Celestia told her, but the smaller purple alicorn paid her no mind. She marched towards Chrysalis until she reached the table she was sitting at but the changeling queen didn't seem bothered in slightest. When she looked down at Twilight, she merely shot her a mocking smile which caused the alicorn to lose all of her self control. She shoved the table that separated the two of them away, grabbed Chrysalis and lifted her into the air.
"You tricked me!" she screamed at her, enraged. "You made me..." she looked down in despair. "My parents... Shining Armor... Spike..." she wept. The whole family gathered in Canterlot to celebrate the anniversary of Night Light and Twilight Velvet and they were all caught in the blast. Chrysalis seemingly relished in her pain.
"First your brother's wedding, now your parents' anniversary." she mocked. "You seem to have a knack for screwing up your family's most important events. Maybe you should have gotten a cutie mark for that instead." Twilight raised her head back at her with hatred in her eyes. Her horn started lighting up as she got ready to blast the changeling queen away. Celestia noticed it and went to intervene.
"Twilight, don't!" she yelled in despair. "Don't do something you'll regret for the rest of your life!" she seemingly got through to her as she lowered her head and the magic from her horn faded, but she still threw Chrysalis at the wall and she slumped down at the table she was sitting at just a minute ago, breaking it. Despite this, she chuckled as she got up.
"Oh, you pony princesses are just too easy." she laughed darkly. "You think you and your subjects can live in peace and harmony and if you spew your "Friendship is Magic" nonsense at all of us we will all just magically accept it and the whole world will be one big happy family. " she walked back to the chair she was sitting on before Twilight entered and sat back on it. "For a pony who claims to be so smart, you can be really dumb sometimes." she told Twilight. Twilight struggled to keep herself under control.
"Shut up or I swear to Faust, I'll..."
"Oh, you'll what?" Chrysalis interrupted. "Banish me and my followers from Equestria forever? You already tried that. Didn't really stuck as I recall. Or you'll just turn me into stone and put me on display in your statue garden? Look at how well that worked with Discord." Twilight felt ready to explode with anger.
"So go ahead, do your worst! Flush us down the toilet, we'll crawl right back like we always do! The only tricky part is that I can't think of anything that might top what I've done today! No matter what you'll do, you can't protect Equestria from us for good!" Chrysalis mocked. Twilight has had enough.
"Yes, I can." she replied coldly as she used her telekinetic grip to lift Chrysalis into the air. Celestia decided that this has gone on long enough. She walked up to Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"Twilight Sparkle! " she yelled, using the Canterlot royal voice. "You will restrain yourself! " But Twilight was having none of it. Not this time. Celestia felt herself pushed back against a wall hard. She didn't expect Twilight to attack her, nor did she expect such a powerful outburst from her student. Just how strong had she become? Chrysalis saw this as the perfect time to deliver the finishing blow.
"Hey, Twily. Sorry if I come across as insensitive or anything, but do you think you'll ever start a new family of your own? Maybe your incompetence won't end up killing them." That was the last straw. Twilight's horn and eyes lit up with sharp purple light as she raised her hoof. She tightened her grip on Chrysalis and then she brought her hoof forward. All Celestia could do was watch in horror as her student executed the changeling queen in front of her eyes and passed the point of no return. But little did she know at the time, this was only the beginning.
Author's Note
So hello!
This is my first story on this site. As you can tell, it is based on 'Injustice: Gods Among Us' and it was inspired by Mr. Astounding's 'Disharmony: Gods Among Ponies'. Putting characters from something into roles in another work is actually one of my favorite types of writing, so I decided to make my own version. I hope you like it
First chapter will be uploaded soon. It is finished, I just have to edit it. Until then, enjoy this prologue.
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1k Views Celebratory Bonus Chapter: Character Endings
Author's Note
Wow! It happened! Unfriendship: Pony Gods has reached 1k views! A big thank you to everyone who read and made this a reality!
To celebrate, I have written a Celebratory Bonus Chapter featuring Injustice style arcade endings for the characters. Some of them are new, some of them stay faithful to the original, some feature a few DC references and one turns into an outright DC crossover!
Once again, thank you for pushing this story to 1k views. Enjoy this bonus chapter!
Have a good one!
1k Views Celebratory Bonus Chapter: Character Endings
Applejack
Returning to her own dimension was a bliss for Applejack. But a few days after coming home, strange things started happening. Her family members started acting hostile towards her and they also became very agitated about something that none of them could explain. The strange events didn't end within her family. Ponies all over Ponyville have been running away from her and kept barrocading themselves inside their homes. It was almost like they were preparing for a battle to hit the town. Almost like in the mirror universe she was in merely weeks ago. She hurried to Canterlot to share this troubling discovery with Princess Twilight. She was the only one who could find a way to solve this troubling situation.
Big Macintosh
Big Macintosh was freed from Twilight's mind control, but the atrocities he committed in the name of the Empress continued to haunt him. His shame eventually drove him into joining her sister, Applejack in the same solitary confinement and reformation attempts that the family banished the mare to. The start was rocky. Macintosh was still furious with his sister for willingly joining the Regime and turning on the Apple family, but eventually realized that even though he acted against his own will, it would be hypocritical to hold the same thing against her. And in his heart, his love for her was stronger than his anger. The two siblings eventually made amends and agreed that the road to redemption would be both shorter and smoother if they traveled together.
Cozy Glow
Cozy Glow was always skilled in manipulation and she needed every bit of that skill to convince Twilight to let her live if only to serve the Regime. Once the Empress' forces were defeated however, she had no idea where to go next. Not only was she a wanted Regime criminal, but she was also notorious for her past atrocities. She's going to need an advantage to stay uncaptured. Almost as if the universe answered her, she stumbled upon a pit of strange, unidentified liquid while hiding in an abandoned cave beneath the mountains of Northern Equestria. As Cozy made contact with the liquid, she could feel a surge of rejuvenation flow through her. She felt almost reborn. With immortality being one of the most basic alicorn powers, Cozy knew that further study of this pit could unlock even bigger magical potential than just prolonged life.
Discord
Discord was a being who relished in chaos, but even he had limits. Even though he realized that the chaos that would ensue from the conflict between Twilight and Celestia, war was something even he was horrified of. And he also realized that Twilight's iron hooved rule would pretty much wipe out chaos forever. So he was quick to ally himself with Celestia. Following the end of the war however, Celestia's rebuilt Equestria into a peaceful, orderly place where there was also no room for chaos. In the end, Discord had to find a new way to entertain himself. He sought out uncaputred Regime fugitive groups and aided them create unrest from behind the scenes. Discord was always a wild card. Why should that change now?
Flurry Heart
Flurry was a devoted follower of Twilight and her Regime, but something that Celestia told her during the fight to free her doppelgänger just couldn't stop bothering her. The former princess accused her mentor of turning her into a weapon, nothing more than a tool to be used for enforcing her rule. She wanted to raise this question to Twilight, but something in her mind told she would not be honest with her. In the end, Flurry stole Twilight's private journal which confirmed her worst suspicions. Twilight was not juts using her as a weapon, but everypony else around her. They were all little more than tools for her to discard when they were no longer useful. Enraged by this revelation, Flurry slayed her aunt and took control of the Regime for herself. She was a warrior like her father, not a weapon. The new regime will be based on a foundation of trust, camaraderie and friendship that only ponies can share.
Fluttershy
Fluttershy knew better than to believe that things would go back to normal after the war. Just because he realized the errors of her ways and defected to Celestia's side did not mean that all of her crimes were forgiven. But her pain upon being rejected by her fellow ponies was nothing compared to the resentment she got from her animal friends. Fluttershy spent every waking moment trying to prove herself worthy of her cutie mark and reignite her connection to the animals inside herself. One day, she heard of an artifact that would not only strengthen her connection with the animal kingdom, but the very essence of the world's creatures as well. But it was lost in the lush jungles of Equestria. Swallowing her fears, she set out to retrieve this 'Tantu Totem'.
King Sombra
Following his defeat in Canterlot, King Sombra retreated to behind the shadows of Equestria and observed what would happen for a while before he would make his next move. The opportunity presented itself sooner than he anticipated. Celestia and several other of Equestria's defenders were pulled into a mirror universe, along with Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor. The Crystal Empire was now free for the picking. But before Sombra could leave to reclaim his kingdom, he realized something else. Celestia and the others maybe gone, but what could stop them from coming back? Sombra then tracked the source of the magic that teleported Celestia away and followed it to the mirror universe where he murdered the other world's Celestia and stole the documents of her interuniversal traveling spell. With his enemies trapped in the mirror universe permanently, Sombra easily reclaimed the Crystal Empire. And it won't be long before Equestria followed suit.
King Thorax
King of Thorax and his changeling resistance fought side by side with Celestia's Insurgency since the very beginning. Everything Thorax knew about ruling, he learned from the former Princess. But during the Insurgency's darkest hour, as the Regime was about to claim victory, Thorax saw his beloved Celestia lay dying in front of him. Breaking down and confessing his love to her in what believed to be her final moments had an unexpected side effect. By being the first changeling to share love instead of taking it, Thorax went through a metamorphosis that not only ceased his hunger for love, but the power of his feelings saved the life of the mare he loved. Together with her and in his new form, the two were able to defeat Twilight and liberate Equestria. Thorax not only proved himself as a worthy ruler, but worthy of filling in the void Sombra's death had left in Celestia's heart. Their union would forge Equestria into a land where ponies and changelings would thrive together for eternity.
Lightning Dust
As the final battle raged on the streets, Lightning Dust quickly realized that the fall of the Regime was unavoidable. But if she was going down, she would take Rainbow Dash with her. Grabbing her rifle, she loaded it with a single bullet she's been keeping since she founded the Exterminators. One that had Rainbow Dash's name carved into it. It was a precise shot right between the eyes. Her target never saw it coming. Apparently, even Rainbow wasn't faster than a speeding bullet. Lightning was surprised to find that the Wonderbolts actually approved of her assassination. They were not keen to follow Rainbow Dash into her madness. Lightning took them and her Exterminators with her and went into hiding. She then merged the two groups together into a private army of mercenaries. The Regime may be gone, but Lightning Dust wouldn't go out of business anytime soon.
Lord Tirek
Freeing himself of Twilight's control during the heat of the final battle, Tirek used his powers to steal the magic of the forces of both the Regime and the Insurgency, before challenging Twilight herself. The battle of the two creatures nearly leveled all of Ponyville, but eventually, Tirek emerged as the victor. The Regimers would pay dearly for his enslavement. For every year that Twilight had him enslaved, she would see ten of the ponies closest to her getting murdered in front of her before being granted the release of death. After a few months of conquering Equestria and hunting down Regimers however, Tirek needed a challenge. He set out to conquer the entire world and if even that wouldn't prove enough, he could always use Celestia's interuniversal traveling spell to turn his gaze towards the multiverse.
Nightmare Moon
Twilight was mistaken to assume that she had Nightmare Moon's loyalty. For whether she was Nightmare Moon or Princess Luna, her loyalty laid only one place. Her beloved Thestrals, creatures of the night who worshipped her have been feared, despised and alienated for generations. And when she discovered that under Twilight's hooves, these creatures were little more than slaves, the Princess of the Night snapped. Using an ancient ritual, Luna separated her consciousness from the Nightmare and then absorbed it into herself. With the power of herself and the Nightmare combined, no creature could match her might. Overthrowing Twilight easily, she gave control of Equestria to the Thestrals. It was time for the other tribes to learn what it means to live in fear and servitude.
Pinkie Pie
With all of her friends supporting Twilight, Pinkie Pie couldn't possibly bring herself to be the only one to turn her back on her, even in support of Celestia. But her cheerful and carefree nature caused struggles within her. The Regime was oppressive, brutal and merciless. Everything that Pinkie wasn't. But for the sake of Twilight and her friends she had to stay resilient. But when Twilight killed Rarity, something inside Pinkie snapped. All of the brutality and ruthlessness she kept building up inside herself have taken control of her in the form of a new twisted personality. She quickly recovered, but was forced to realize that in the rampage of this new side of herself, she had killed Twilight. Pinkie Pie now remains under constant watch by Celestia, trying to surpass this personality from ever taking hold again.
Prince Blueblood
Being the opportunitist he was, Blueblood quickly realized that Twilight's Regime would not further his social standings, but it was necessary to ensure his survival and the continuation of his political aspirations. Twilight greatly underestimated his diplomatic skills, which would eventually prove to be her downfall. Behind scenes, Blueblood could convince the nobility of both Equestria and surrounding nations that Twilight had to go. An alliance against the Equestrian Magical Regime was formed and they invaded Equestria to remove the tyrant. Twilight commanded all of her forces on the frontlines which gave Blueblood the opportunity to catch her alone and assassinate her. With Twilight gone, Celestia was put back on the throne by the liberators. But everypony knew that she was merely a figurehead, but nopony knew who was really in charge. Nopony except for Blueblood.
Princess Cadence
Following their humiliating defeat in Canterlot, Cadence quickly managed to reorganize her forces and after Twilight's defeat, they easily conquered the weakened Equestria. She then forced Sunburst to craft replicas of the Crystal Heart. Cadence fused her love magic with these replicas as well as the original and used them to spread love all over the lands. There will be no more wars, oppression and suffering. From now on, every creature will only know love. Love for each other and for her: Empress Mi Amore Cadenza, Goddess of Love and Immortal ruler of the Eternal Crystal Empire.
Princess Celestia
The fight against Twilight's Regime had taken everything out of Celestia. Despite the encouragement of the other dimension's ponies, she wished to reunite with her dear husband and finally rest. She challenged her former student to one last fight. Twilight easily overpowered her, but her victory was short-lived as Celestia managed to tap into Twilight's magic and causing it to overload, obliterating the two alicorns. In her will, Celestia left her and Sombra's immense wealth to the country they gave everything to defend. On the tallest building of every city, a picture of the royal couple was hanged along with the phrase "If you seek their monument, look around you."
Queen Chrysalis
While Chrysalis finally made it home to her own dimension, she was once again a prisoner at the mercy of the princesses. It was a good thing for her that the princesses of her own world and the other had at least one thing in common: their striking naivety. They believed that they could hold her and contain her until they find a way to reform her and make her accept their harmony and friendship. But Chrysalis learned something from her late counterpart during the adventure, she learned the spell to reverse her shape shifting ability to ponies and using this new tactic, she easily escaped. With the ability to transform all creatures around her into whatever form she pleased, Chrysalis created a huge wave of panic and paranoia across the land and used the resulting chaos to her advantage to foalnap and feast on all the ponies with her hive that she wanted to her black heart's content without much interruption.
Rainbow Dash
Rainbow Dash was quite concerned with her counterpart's actions. While her body was trained to peak physical condition, she had always neglected training her mind. She had no idea if she wouldn't perform the same actions should she ever go through the same things as the other world's Rainbow Dash did. Seeking out Princess Twilight's help, Rainbow submitted herself to exhausting psychological procedures that helped her to get better a understanding of herself. She now realized that while she was always very focused on her own achievements, she had never quite helped others around her with theirs. With her friend's help, Rainbow organized a service withing the Wonderbolts that helped members who dealt with struggles of the mind and the soul. Her dedication to helping her comrades with their problems would keep her from falling because of her own.
Rarity
Twilight and the others returned from the mirror universe, but something was not right. The interuniversal jump had an unexpected side effect. The ponies who returned were infected with a strange otherworldly disease, that turned them into mindless, rageful beings who went on a warpath without a goal to level Equestria. The only alicorn Princess who remained, Luna knew of only one solution, but she needed an unicorn's help. Rarity was quick to volunteer to the task. Luna sacraficed herself to split her alicorn essence into separate parts and Rarity used her magic to absorb it into herself, as well as cast it onto Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. The five of them became the new Princesses of Equestria and saved the land from this otherworldy menace.
Shining Armor
The war against Twilight was over, but Shining Armor couldn't find it in himself to leave just yet. The two ponies closest to his heart were still suffering from rage, sorrow and hatred. Though he was not their Shining Armor, he took it upon himself to reconcile this world's Cadance and Flurry Heart. Flurry's heart was still filled with anger towards for mother, for she was among those the young filly blamed for the loss of Canterlot and her father. But Shining knew exactly how she felt. For he felt the same anger when his dimension's Thorax approached him seeking friendship. The memory of his and Cadance's wedding still fresh in his mind, he had no trouble hating and blaming him for everything that happened. But once he learned to forgive, it lead to Thorax sharing this friendship with the changelings and their reformation. Friendship, love and forgiveness can lead to wonders. It would be a long process, but eventually, Flurry would learn this lesson too.
Spitfire
With the war over and the Regime's supporters imprisoned, Spitfire had a lot of time to ruminate on past events. She had everything she could ever ask for. She was the celebrated captain of the Wonderbolts and had the perfect special somepony that she always wanted. At the top of her career and ready to start a family, the tragedy of Canterlot hit her terribly hard and it was her anger at it's instigators and the loss of her husband that motivated her to join Twilight. But in prison, her rage only grew. Celestia had no right to deny her revenge on the guilty. Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head encouraging her fury, before a mysterious red glowing object burst through the ceiling of her cell and found it's way onto her body. Spitfire was engulfed in a blood red light as she felt her rage increase tenfolds. Those who took Soarin away from her, those who would prevent her vengeance and everyone who would bring harm to others, she'll burn them all. That was their fate!
Starlight Glimmer
A few days after her return from the mirror universe, Starlight noticed that Twilight was acting unusually. She had been neglecting her duties often and isolating herself from her friends. Eventually, the Princess revealed to Starlight that she was being tormented by nightmares where she fell in the exact same way as her counterpart did. Starlight knew exactly what her friend was going through. She had been suffering the same nightmares the first time she came to Ponyville after her attampt to rewrite history almost lead to tragedies. But she never thought that Twilight would ever have to go through something similar. Regardless, having experienced the exact same thing before, Starlight knew exactly how to help her friend. She had purged the darkness inside herself before. She was happy that she could do the same for somepony else.
Sunset Shimmer
With her vengeance on the Regime exacted, Sunset was now satisfied enough to return to her friends in the human world. Yet for some reason, she still felt empty. Ever since she first settled down in Canterlot High and turned her life around she's always been feeling a little homesickness, but this feeling was somehow stronger. It felt almost like something was calling her back to Equestria. Like she had unfinished business there. When she returned, she immediately found herself in what was formerly the throne room where she found Celestia in a deep depressive state. The events of the last five years have finally caught up with her. Sunset's visit clearly lifted her spirits and when she saw her warm, motherly smile, she immediately knew what the emptiness inside her was. Her duty was calling her back to Equestria. Sunset Shimmer was ready to continue her studies.
Trixie Lullamoon
Trixie wasn't joking when she told Rainbow Dash about her intention to overpower Twilight. All she needed was the right opportunity to strike. After her skirmish with Rainbow, she decided to abandon her orders and return to the Castle of Friendship to carry out her plan. Twilight was indeed more powerful than anypony, but in her madness, her mind had been addled to the point where she was unable to use it to it's fullest potential. Trixie took full advantage this and used her magic to access the alicorn's mind and break it even further to the point where she lost control of her enormous magic and destroyed herself. In a surprising move, Trixie then helped the Insurgency tear down the Regime from inside in exchange for amnesty for her service under Twilight. Trixie finally got what she always wanted in her days as a traveling magician. For her defeat of the Empress, she now had her group of adoring fans, praising her as the Great and Powerful Trixie.
Twilight Sparkle
While pleased with the outcome, Twilight's fight with her doppelgänger left her troubled. If one Twilight could fall so low, why not another? Preventative measures were in order. Twilight studied the other world's Celestia's anti-alicorn spell and created a magical seal which she then planted inside her body. At the slightest sign of instability, the seal would be activated and strip Twilight of her alicorn powers. The issue of who would carry the trigger to this seal was solved democratically. Each week, a different member of The Friendship Council would safekeep the trigger.